As the B.C. election enters its second full week, British Columbians will get to 'hear' the three party leaders together for the first time tomorrow.
B.C. NDP Leader David Eby, Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad and B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau will debate each other for an hour Wednesday (Oct. 2) on CKNW with a livestream also available. Long-time political journalist Mike Smyth will moderate the debate scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and running until 10 a.m.
Speaking in Castlegar Tuesday, Eby said Rustad has "a very well-established record in government" when asked how he plans to differentiate himself from Rthe others.
"John Rustad was an MLA for longer than (B.C. United's Leader) Kevin Falcon and certainly for longer than I have been," Eby said. "I will be happy to talk about his record of cutting health care, reducing services for people, increasing costs every chance he got."
An MLA since 2005, the Conservative leader served four years as Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation from 2013 to 2017 and less than a month as Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in the summer of 2017, prior to the B.C. NDP assuming power. Until that point, Rustad was part of governing caucuses under former premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark.
Eby has been an MLA since 2013 and became premier in November 2022 after having served as Attorney-General for five years (2017-2022). During his last three years as attorney-general, Eby also served as minister responsible for housing.
Eby added that he expects Rustad's handlers "will have beaten him into submission about not talking about his crazy Internet conspiracy theories," adding that Rustad only talks about them when he is in a "trusted environment with his pals like Jordan Peterson."
Eby made these comments after his party released a video clip Tuesday morning which the party says shows Rustad claiming that efforts to combat climate change are part of an “anti-human agenda” designed to “reduce the world population.”
Tuesday's release was only the latest in a series, which Greater Victoria radio host Adam Stirling has likened to a "cringe advent calendar" while raising questions about its effectiveness.
"At some point, the message becomes the (Conservatives) are an awful unelectable party of clowns, and they are still polling higher than the NDP, which says something about the NDP...," Stirling wrote on social media.
Polls currently show both parties effectively tied with percentages in the mid-to-low 40s, with the B.C. Greens at around 10 per cent.
Rustad, who spoke near Squamish at the same time as Eby, also addressed the upcoming debate. When was asked how he plans to "address the NDP's determined effort to paint you as kind of a crank," he responded in part by saying that Eby is trying to distract from his own record.
"There is nothing in this province that is better off under David Eby," Rustad said. "His radical ideology has created nothing but grief and problems in this province."
Furstenau, who Tuesday released her party's platform, used the hours before the debate to call for a different, fear-free discourse.
"I say to people, until we all start voting for what we want, we are going to keep getting the same outcomes," she said. "We are going to keep getting what we don't want.
"I think we should stop settling for the kind of politics that focuses on short-term, one-off non-solutions to enormous challenges and crises we face."
The three leaders will also face off on at an event hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Wednesday.
The televised leaders' debate is scheduled for Oct. 8
