Other than Shirley Bond’s two-year stint as interim leader of the former BC Liberal Party from 2020 to 2022, you have to go back to the four-year span between 1929 and 1933 to find the last Leader of the Opposition from BC’s north when Duff Pattullo lead the Liberals while MLA for Prince Rupert.
The furthest north a BC premier has come from is the now-defunct district of Cariboo, when George Anthony Walkem lead the province between 1874 and 1876 and again from 1878 to 1882.
The province’s new opposition leader, the Conservative Party of BC’s John Rustad, told The Citizen in a Dec. 23 interview that he thinks his new status will allow him to highlight issues going on in both rural and northern BC.
Rustad led the BC Tories to a remarkable improvement in the 2024 provincial election, going from eight seats when the Legislature was dissolved to 44 afterwards. That’s just three fewer than the BC NDP, who have the narrowest possible majority with 47 seats in a 93-seat Legislature.
The Conservatives seats include all three Prince George districts: Prince George-North Cariboo, Prince George-Valemount and Prince George-Mackenzie. Those are now represented respectively by Sheldon Clare, Rosalyn Bird and Kiel Giddens.
Next to those districts is Rustad’s, Nechako Lakes. It includes communities like Vanderhoof, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake and Houston.
“For example, I was able to work with Kiel as well as Rosalyn and Sheldon with regards to the Tidewater refinery, bring that forward and make sure that legislation came forward and try to push government to make some changes there,” Rustad said.
“That was something that is an important issue for Prince George, not necessarily an important issue for the rest of the province. (Being leader) gave me an opportunity to do that. Also, I think it’s given me the opportunity to be very vocal about our forest industry and the challenges that we’re facing … over the last seven years under the NDP.”
The first session of the new Legislature has yet to be called, but Giddens has already announced his intentions to introduce a private member’s bill to address so-called “double dipping” that American producers of renewable diesel are taking advantage of.
These producers are receiving subsidies in the United States and then a further subsidy when they sell into BC.
The CEO of Tidewater Renewables, which operates a renewable diesel refinery in Prince George, has told The Citizen that this allows their American competitors to sell their products at a lower price than they can compete with. If the problem isn’t fixed by March, the CEO has said the refinery will have to shut down.
Rustad described Giddens’ bill as an “easy fix” but accused the NDP of trying to hide by not convening the Legislature until February.
On forestry, Rustad said BC’s industry is “struggling to survive.” While he said lumber prices seem to be okay, he criticized the NDP for not doing more to deal with softwood lumber tariffs imposed by the U.S. while in government.
He also said the industry is having trouble getting access to fiber because permits can take years to be issued and wood hasn’t been put out to tender by BC Timber Sales until recently.
“It’s no wonder why we have closures, why we have shift curtailments when you can’t get access to fibre,” Rustad said. “But I think out of all of it, the biggest problem is we are by far the highest cost producer (of lumber) and that means we need to be doing everything we can to try to drive down costs.”
The government shouldn’t be charging stumpage fees on wood controlled by First Nations, Rustad said, adding that the carbon tax is hurting the sector because it is dependent on diesel.
In January, Rustad said he’ll be attending the BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George and hosting a breakfast in his role as opposition leader.
During the forum, Rustad said he’ll be raising the issue of mining projects and how long they take to get approved.
“We have enormous potential for new mines to start up, but the problem we have in British Columbia (is) the permitting process takes so long,” he said. “It can take up to 15 years to get a permit to get a mine underway. In Sweden, which has some of the highest if not the highest environmental standard in the world, it takes two years.”
The opposition leader pointed to the provincial government’s recent approval of nine First Nations-led wind power projects, which will be allowed to skip the environmental assessment process, as an example of an issue with the permitting process.
He added that he thinks it’s wrong to waive the environmental assessment, because he believes wind projects can be very damaging to the environment. One of these projects is a joint venture between Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and Spanish company Ecoener.
If you were to remove immigration from the calculation of BC’s gross domestic product, Rustad said it would show that the province is in a recession. With a $9.4 billion deficit projected for the 2024-25 fiscal year, he said BC’s natural resource sector is ready to help address that “if we can get government out of the way.”
Not only did the Conservatives sweep all three Prince George districts, but Rustad gave them all positions within his caucus. Clare was named deputy whip, Giddens was made the labour critic and Bird was appointed as critic for citizens’ services.
Rustad said the NDP’s cabinet is bloated and accused Eby of buying loyalty by appointing 27 members as ministers from a 47-seat caucus. Since the election, he said the NDP have not changed its direction, merely its messaging.
In appointing his shadow cabinet and caucus positions, Rustad said he wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to help hold the government to account in part to prepare for the opportunity to eventually form a Conservative government.
For Prince George, he said he wants to focus on healthcare issues since the city is a regional hub for health services. He also said the forestry issues he wants to tackle are important because of the city’s pulp mills and sawmills.
As party leader, Rustad has vowed to stand up against cancel culture. His own path to the Conservative party came in 2022 when BC United Leader Kevin Falcon booted him from that party’s caucus for sharing a post that cast doubt on the science of climate change.
He’s already been tested on that front since the election. After Surrey South Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko signalled her approval of the resignation of the vice-chair of the Vancouver Police Board for social media posts made by the latter, 13 MLAs wrote Rustad a letter requesting that he ask Sturko to issue a written apology.
The posts made by Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba criticized what she described as gender ideology, Diwali celebrations in schools and mass immigration.
While Rustad requested that Sturko meet with Sakoma-Fadugba over the issue, Sturko has stood by her position.
Discussing his handling of the situation, Rustad said he doesn’t want to run a typical political party where members are ordered to toe the party line because in his view, that violates freedom of speech.
“To me, freedom of speech means somebody has the right to say something,” Rustad said. “As long as it’s not hate, as long as it’s not racism, people should have the right to say things even if I vehemently oppose what they say.”
While he disagrees with Sturko, he said she had the right to express her thouights.
He said it would be easier to run a party that tries to command and control its members’ messages, but the advantage of promoting freedom of speech is that it widens the party’s tent.
Broadening the party’s base to minorities and younger voters, he said, are one of the big reasons for its rise in the last election.
