As the world awaits to hear Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate issues like access to abortion and in-vitro fertilization, B.C.'s premier said he wants to "sound the alarm bell" about the Conservative Party of B.C. policies on those same issues.
But Conservative leader John Rustad repeated an earlier promise not to re-open that debate and promised to maintain various B.C. services as they exist.
David Eby spoke at a Greater Victoria event touting a new program that will fund one round of IVF for couples starting April 1, personalized with comments from Teri Parker and Desiree Cabecinha, a self-described queer couple looking to have two children, and Lia and Viva Moodley, the parents of B.C's "(first) test-tube baby".
"It's a start of the work that we are doing to support families, who are ready to take that step and welcome someone new into their lives," Eby said.
But it did not take him long to pivot from there to a critique of Rustad and his party.
"It's fairly safe to say that he is at best ambivalent about reproductive freedom and at worst hostile to it — that woman's access to abortion, woman's access to free birth control, is on the ballot this election, just like it is in the United States."
But even as Eby was still speaking, Conservative spokesperson Anthony Koch accused him of hypocrisy.
"The people who never shut up about the importation of 'American style politics' do nothing other than import American political issues," Koch wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "This is a fake issue that the Canadian left brings up every election cycle at every level without fail."
He later said on X that "(no government) in Canada is going to ban abortion. Why? For the same reason Liberals and New Democrats insist on pretending they will: it’s absolutely suicidal at the ballot box."
Without mentioning his name, Eby alluded several times to former Conservative candidate Damien Scrase, who had commented on the issue of abortion on social media before becoming a candidate in 2002. Scrase said that the “most feverishly defended ‘right’ in this country is the right to kill babies," adding that you "will never see a Canadian get more animated by any other issue. It’s a bizarre sclerotic death-worshipping society.”
Rustad initially defended Scrase's comments, but eventually dropped him as a candidate. When asked about his own position, Rustad said at the time that his party won't re-open the abortion debate in noting that the federal government regulates the issue. He has publicly confirmed this position on several occasions, most recently at a rally on Vancouver Island.
When media asked Eby not once, but twice, why Rustad's answer was not good enough for him, Eby responded in part by saying that Rustad remains evasive on several questions.
"So when I hear a leadership candidate say, 'federal issue,' what they are really saying is, 'I don't want to tell you what my position is.' Will that leader fund birth control? Probably not. Will that leader fund the morning after pill for free? Probably not. Will that leader ensure that access to abortion is provided across the province where women need that service? Probably not. That's why the question is on the ballot, because he provides that evasive answer again and again and again."
When asked for comment, Rustad said abortion is a federal issue.
"CPBC will not be re-opening the debate," he said. He added that "access to abortion, contraception and other items will remain exactly as it is now" in accusing Eby of using "the oldest, dirtiest campaign tricks" in the book.
"David Eby's lying will not distract from his government's disastrous policies," Rustad said. He added that his not surprised that Eby chose today to make those claims.
This debate is unfolding against an Angus Reid poll that show provincial Conservatives and provincial New Democrats in a tight race, with some projections giving the Conservatives a small edge in seats won. But the Angus Reid poll also shows Eby with a higher favourability rating than Rustad among all voters including women. The New Democrats hold an 11-per cent advantage among women with the proviso that they are losing ground among women aged 34 and older.
The poll also reveals that Rustad remains an unfamiliar figure for some. According to the poll, two-in-five women older than 34 view Eby favourably.
"A similar number say they have an unfavourable view of Rustad, but a sizable portion of that group say they don’t know enough to form an opinion," it reads.
When asked why the Conservatives are surging, Eby suggested British Columbians do not know yet enough about them. He specifically alluded to a recent report that B.C. United had compiled on the party's executive director executive director, Angelo Isidorou,
According to CP, the document depicts Isidorou’s involvement in the People’s Party of Canada as a founding member, his “admiration” of right-wing figures including Donald Trump and includes what it calls a “white power” photo of him wearing a Make America Great Again cap while making a hand gesture it says is associated with the alt-right movement.
Isidorou, who describes himself as a Canadian conservative who abhors all forms of extremism, told CP in a statement he was being a “dumb” first-year university student when he wore the MAGA hat at the opening of the former Trump International Hotel and Tower in 2017. He also said the hand gesture is “innocuous” and he “utterly” rejects it having a meaning other than “OK.”
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said of the claims that Isidorou is a “capable individual” and he’s more concerned with defeating Eby than about the people working behind the scenes in his own party.
-with files from Canadian Press
