John Rustad got through the night, barely, but his B.C. Conservative leadership has the feeling of life support.
A disputatious leadership review, conducted mostly by stealth this summer, yielded 70.66 percent support for Rustad in results released Monday. Sounds strong enough, but you can get statistics to tell many stories, and a telling one is that in a province of 5.5 million, fewer than 900 people supported the survival of the official opposition leadership.
This “mandate to lead” that he claims is more like a candle in a drafty room than a torch leading the way; apathy and indifference more than passion and commitment.
Rustad travelled 12,000 kilometres all summer to get that support, which works out to about 13 klicks per vote. And 13 is also roughly the average number of voters who showed up in the province’s 93 ridings; in two ridings, no one bothered to vote at all.
The party says Rustad won in 78 of the ridings, which, if you want the tiny-glass-not-even-full view, also means he lacks majority support in about one-sixth of them.
Rustad told aides he wanted at least 70 percent support to stay, so he got the least he wanted, but the result is much queried from elements of his own party because of a late surge of memberships and the vote process itself. The run-up included thousands of disqualified memberships, including three bought for the deceased.
While we’re dwelling on stats, let’s recall that the party that surged from 4 percent in provincial polls to more than 40 percent last year, and nearly took last October’s election, now has a fractured caucus. Of 44 MLAs elected, three social conservative MLAs have since bolted, its most prominent moderate voice was expelled Monday, and more may go because another half-dozen reportedly threatened in a letter to sit as Independents if Rustad didn’t resign at a Monday caucus meeting.
A week ago, Rustad was shooed from the room for his caucus to discuss whether to press him to resign. Monday night, he ordered that MLAs leave their cellphones outside the room.
The disunity and distrust don’t bode well for a party that ought to be sinking its fangs into a fumbling government when the legislature resumes in two weeks.
