John Rustad quits as B.C. Conservative leader to avoid 'civil war'

After a messy and confusing endgame, John Rustad's leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C. is finally over — but the battle over the ideological direction of the party that he took to the brink of power may be entering a new phase.

Rustad announced his resignation Thursday in the provincial legislature, citing the need for party unity. It came after months of anything but that — media leaks, phones being searched in caucus meetings, and the exit of five MLAs representing different ends of the small-c conservative spectrum.

"Tearing apart this party with a civil war was not the right thing to do," Rustad told reporters, less than a day after saying he would stay on. "We need to be able to always think about how we're standing and building this party going forward."

But a statement on Rustad's personal social media account suggested the battle over "the soul of this party" would continue, as he encouraged new members to join the party to hold it to account.

On Wednesday, Rustad refused to resign in the face of a revolt in which 20 MLAs, representing a majority in the caucus of 39, said they had lost confidence in his leadership and wanted him out.

There were strange scenes after a caucus press release declared Rustad had been "removed," despite his protestations otherwise, and Conservative MLAs disagreed about the identity of their party's leader.

Rustad told reporters Thursday his "core people" and his wife encouraged him to keep fighting. But he said doing so "would be the creation of a civil war within the Conservative Party of British Columbia, and that is not in the interest of this party."

The party did not need that messiness before embarking on the search for a new leader, Rustad said.

Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford took over as the party's interim leader, declaring he had no interest in the job on a permanent basis, while promising to support the next leader, whoever that might be.

He deferred questions about the timing and process of the upcoming leadership race to the party.

Halford also said it would be up to the next leader to decide how to handle three former B.C. Conservatives now sitting as Independents — Amelia Boultbee, Jordan Kealy and Elenore Sturko — as well as the party's relationship with OneBC, formed by two other ex-Conservatives, Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong.

Halford said there was an "asterisk" beside his name as interim leader.

"I'm not here to make wholesale changes," he said in a news conference at the legislature with MLAs standing behind him.

"I wouldn't characterize this as a festive, happy moment," he said, calling it an "emotionally difficult" time, and an "excruciating" past 48 hours.

He said there was no "gulf of ideology" in the party as it faced the prospect of a new leadership race.

"I'm feeling very, very united," Halford said. "We've had great conversations. We're going to continue to have those. But I'm feeling confident that this caucus is focused on the next chapter ahead."

Rustad's resignation itself concluded one of the most tumultuous 24 hours in recent provincial politics.

It started Wednesday morning with the emergence of a letter from a Victoria lawyer saying he had in his possession declarations from 20 MLAs that they had lost confidence in Rustad.

Two hours later, the party announced that Rustad had been removed because he was "professionally incapacitated" and that Halford had been appointed as interim leader.

There was a schism among Conservative MLAs as they spilled into the hallways of the legislature on its final sitting day of the fall session. Some claimed Rustad remained their leader, while others backed Halford.

Both Rustad and Halford tried to shape the narrative by appealing to Speaker Raj Chouhan, in the hope he would make some sort of affirmation about who was the official leader of the Opposition.

Eventually, both took their usual seats in the legislature on Wednesday, separated by arm-lengths, with Chouhan having left the question of leadership unanswered by the end of the day.

Rustad's resignation rendered any deliberations by Chouhan moot, and on Thursday, both Rustad supporters and opponents stood behind Halford at his inaugural news conference as interim leader. Rustad was a notable absence.

Halford said not all MLAs could attend, citing personal reasons — in addition to Rustad, other absentees included his supporters Jody Toor, Reann Gasper, and Kristina Loewen, as well as the party's house leader, A'aliya Warbus.

And despite the talk of unity, Rustad's own statements suggested the ideological fate of the party was far from settled.

Rustad had commented in a statement issued by the caucus on the need for a "strong and unified opposition that is ready to hold this government to account and defeat it."

He also said in that statement the uprising against him "was not a hostile takeover by BC Liberals," a reference to the centre-right party that had renamed itself BC United, only to implode before last year's provincial election, with many of its MLAs jumping to the B.C. Conservatives.

But the statement on his personal social media account alluded to the ongoing split within the party, the leadership battle ahead, and the need to muster forces against those who wanted to "return to the party that gave you carbon taxes and silence in the face of Ottawa’s overreach."

"The media will try to anoint their preferred leader, but that may not align with what ordinary British Columbians need," he said. "So, I ask you to think carefully about the path ahead," he said.

He encouraged people to sign up for Conservative memberships, telling them to "hold this party to the same uncompromising standard of accountability that you held me to."

Rustad's downfall comes less than 14 months after his feat of taking a party that had been elected to zero seats in 2020 to within three of a majority in the 2024 election.

It was a moment of vindication for Rustad, who had been booted out of the BC Liberals because of his views on climate change, before taking the once-moribund Conservative brand and reviving it.

The journey that took him to the threshold of the premier's office may help explain why he took so long to step down, a question he addressed in his social media statement

"Many of you have had strong opinions about my decision to fight for the soul of this party. And I understand that," he said.

"I had a responsibility to stand my ground."

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito