Little more than a year ago, the Conservative Party of B.C. had a caucus of two members, neither of them elected as Conservatives.
When the legislature returns after what many consider the closest election in B.C.'s history, the caucus will include 44 MLAs elected from every corner of the province.
Political strategist Rachael Segal, founder of Beyond A Ballot, said that change will require the party to strike a new, more unified tone in the legislature.
"Obviously, the tone has to change, because they have more voices," she said. "You can't go in with 44 voices and think that you are going to be speaking the way you were when you had two people."
When the caucus had just two members — Leader John Rustad and Bruce Banman — they needed to get attention, Segal said.
"But now, they are the Official Opposition — and I want to stress the Official Opposition — there's going to have to be a lot of coordinated effort among the caucus," she said. "They are going to have to work together to hold (Premier) David Eby (of B.C. NDP) to account and I know, knowing some of those that have been elected, that they are excited to do so."
The new diversity of the Conservative caucus is evident in many ways, starting with Rustad's first comments as Official Opposition Leader when he met the media Tuesday.
"We actually have the first Black woman (Reann Gasper, Abbotsford-Mission), who has been elected since 1972," he said, adding that 41 per cent of elected MLAs are women. "About 22 per cent of our MLAs are ethnic minorities."
The caucus also includes a prominent Indigenous voice, A'aliya Warbus, the daughter of B.C.'s former lieutenant governor Steven Lewis Point.
The Conservative caucus also includes MLAs representing geographically large ridings with spread-out populations in the northeastern and northwestern corners of B.C. and geographically small but highly dense urban ridings in Metro Vancouver, along with MLAs from every other major region in B.C.
Kareem Allam, a partner with Fairview Strategy, also points to the ideological diversity within the caucus in pointing to the space between comments from Dallas Brodie (Vancouver-Quilchena) and Warbus on Indigenous affairs.
Brodie made headlines during the campaign, when she said that First Nations needed to show responsibility for their members living on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: “When a large percentage of your people are the on the Downtown Eastside, it’s important that you come and take responsibility for that piece as well."
Warbus, meanwhile, last week praised the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples while appearing on the CBC, calling it an "absolutely critical framework" that continues to serve as a "guiding principle" for the social health determinants for First Nations.
Rustad has publicly stated that UNDRIP will continue to serve as a guiding principle, distancing himself from previous comments concerning plans to repeal UNDRIP. But he has also left open the possibility of repealing it in the future. Warbus, however, agreed with Rustad's approach toward economic reconciliation.
Allam also pointed to the criticism coming from inside the Conservative caucus about racially insensitive comments made by Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov. Rustad said Tuesday that she won't be running again for the party.
Segal said Conservatives will be taking their place in the legislature during a "big transition period" for the centre-right in British Columbia following B.C. United's decision to fold its campaign in August.
"So caucus cohesion is going to be key to getting work done," she said.
Another key is fostering new young political voices, who can advocate for issues that are affecting their generation, like childcare, health-care and housing costs, Segal added. She added that the Conservatives' message around affordability and housing for future generations "were extremely well received" by the public.
"Also safety is very important to people," she said. "There are a lot of people that are looking to government to either help with their personal safety or the safety of their business, which in turn goes hand-in-hand with that economic message."
Segal's third recommendation concern the party's role in holding government accountable.
"There is a fine line between opposition and...being an effective opposition and holding that government to account," she said. "I have no doubt that with some of the new faces in the Conservative caucus and the clear plan that John Rustad has for British Columbia...that was so well-received (during the campaign), that they will be able to ensure that the NDP government hears the message of almost half of British Columbians, who voted for the Conservatives."
Speaking last week to Black Press Media before the final vote count was in, Geoff Meggs, chief-of-staff for former NDP Premier John Horgan from 2017 until 2022, said Rustad now faces the difficulty of maintaining the energy and momentum of his campaign.
"So we will see what events bring forward," he said. "I think it's a problem for him.
"On one hand, he has very excited candidates, who want to sit in the (legislature) and come from very disparate activist backgrounds, who are looking forward to making some waves. Yet at the same time, he's got a lot of voters out there, who might have considered him as an option, except they were afraid he would make too many waves."
Ultimately though, Segal sees the Conservatives' historic rise as part of larger message from previously under-represented communities.
"I think it's an exciting time for a lot of people, who felt like they haven't really had a voice in the legislature, potentially for a while," she said.
