According to my editor, I need to begin this particular column with a disclosure: yes, this man, who ran for the BC Conservatives in 2013 against the Minister of Everything, Shirley Bond, and has since written a Citizen column under the heading “Right of Centre” for ten years, has a current membership in John Rustad’s BC Conservative Party.
If this revelation shocks anyone, please send me all of your personal details and banking information: I have a BC Rail lease for you...
With that nonsense finished, let us get down to business: does Rustad, his platform, and the movement he is building across BC earn my endorsement? Yes, on all three counts. Why? Because Rustad’s words, deeds, and policy proposals, as well as the candidates he is recruiting, are worthy of my trust. John is not the messiah but he is the voice of common sense crying out in the BC wilderness. Shall we not answer his call?
Let’s take this beat by beat. In Canada, party expulsion equals electoral defeat. Rustad knew this better than most, and yet, when it was demanded he take down his retweet of Patrick Moore, he refused, choosing to stand with his constituents who need fertilizer to feed us. What was the fruit of Rustad’s refusal to raise his hand against Nechako Lakes? The party that left him for dead is now entirely eclipsed by the Goof from the Hoof and his motley crew of Tories.
A great underdog story, especially if by election time Rustad’s rebels are competing for government. But what about the fact that Rustad has been elected 20 years, all of that under the BC United/Liberal banner: doesn’t that taint him?
If I have learned anything about politics after a decade, you work with who you have; and our movement won the lottery because we got a well-known, happily married, politically astute Northern British Columbian with the common touch.
So, the momentum and the man in charge are the genuine article. But what about the policies being proposed?
Well if you look through the BC Tory website, the platform is so familiar it's almost boring: cutting taxes and red tape, increasing affordability for families, fixing public services and infrastructure, as well as facing tough issues like homelessness and drug addiction with approaches that acknowledge the need for both justice and rehabilitation.
None of that would raise an eyebrow in any chamber of commerce in Canada. What got folks squawking this fall was Rustad and chiropractic Dr. Bruce “Backcracker” Banman showing that all is not well at your schools, hospitals, or gas pumps: anti-human ideology has captured the ruling parties of the West. Call it what you will, but the results are unmistakable. While the elites virtue signal, costs go up for average folks and services decline or even become hostile.
It took guts to read SOGI materials out loud in the legislature, to state emphatically that holding onto outdated mandates is killing healthcare, to prove with science that taxing people into poverty is not going to change the weather. After years of a dithering opposition and an NDP government running roughshod over our rights in every direction, Rustad and Banman have stolen the show by punching well above their weight. And those swings are connecting.
Would I offer any advice to Rustad? If the election is called early, my only advice is to appeal directly to voters. At the leaders’ debate, in the media, use the words of WAC Bennett in 1952: “on election day, cross the floor with me and bring good government to British Columbia.”
Bennett campaigned tirelessly across BC, building the SoCred movement, as Rustad is doing now for the Tories. Rustad has 2 seats; WAC had 1. After 1952, Bennett was Premier for 20 years.
Lastly, for the folks who have been burned innumerable times: is change finally here?
I suppose there is no way to know for certain, but I can say this: Rustad has shown integrity and consistency in a time of cowardice and chaos.
Perhaps, we can just dare to hope.
Nathan Giede is a Prince George writer
