Conservative Party of B.C. John Rustad Tuesday (Oct. 29) said his party would support government policies that support "average, everyday working" persons in B.C., but also repeated earlier promises to bring down the B.C. NDP government under Premier David Eby.
"If there are things that are moved forward that will improve lives for those people, we would be looking at support it," Rustad said. "But if he's going to carry forward with the destructive policies that he has, then yes, we are going to look at every opportunity possible to bring him down as soon as possible."
Rustad made these comments in the provincial legislature, where he met with reporters for the first time after the final vote count released by Elections BC gave the B.C. NDP 47 seats, enough for a bare majority. The final vote count gives Rustad's party 44 seats, the B.C. Greens under Sonia Furstenau two seats.
While two seats are subject to judicial recounts, Rustad acknowledged that his party currently lacks a path toward assuming government. "Our job going forward in opposition is to make sure that we fight for the values and fight for the things that the Conservative Party stands for, those things we have been fighting for...for the last year and a half, those things that we fought during the election."
Rustad's appearance came some three hours after Eby had faced the legislative press gallery. Eby once again acknowledged during his appearance that the Conservatives "did a good job of speaking to people about issues that they are concerned about in their communities, public safety, that they are concerned about at home, affordability."
Rustad touched on both those issues when he said that his party would hold Eby accountable on public safety. "Our streets need to be cleaned up," he said. "We need to be changing what's happening on our streets with drugs."
On the subject of affordability, Eby also promised to fulfill his election promise to eliminate the consumer portion of the carbon tax if Ottawa drops the legal requirement.
"We know that people are struggling with affordability," Eby said.
Rustad said his party will hold Eby to his word. "We will push and try to figure out how we can leverage that to get rid of the entire carbon tax, but it (elimination of the consumer tax) is an important piece of affordability that's needed in British Columbia."
But before anything of that can happen, the legislature needs a speaker. Eby has held out the possibility that this person could come from the ranks of the opposition, including the B.C. Greens or and Conservatives.
"So I do know that the NDP have been calling around our members, asking and looking for somebody to become speaker for them," Rustad said, without mentioning any specific names. "It's not something...that I'm considering supporting at this stage. If David Eby wanted to call me and say that he wants to move forward with significant parts of our agenda, may be there's something that we could be talking about."
Rustad added that "at this stage" that he would not looking at offering one of our members to be speaker.
Rustad also used the occasion to highlight his party's accomplishments, which went from zero elected members at dissolution to 44 seats. While he acknowledged that being in opposition is "extremely frustrating," he also pointed out that the party came from a place where it had no team, only to fall "just short" of of forming government.
"I'm pretty proud of what we have been able to accomplish."
Ultimately, Rustad offered this assessment of his party's performance.
"There is an old saying in politics, that you don't lose elections, you run out of time. The unfortunate part is that we needed perhaps leave more time to be able to connect, particularly with those people in the province that may not have heard the messaging and what we are trying to achieve in this province."
Rustad signalled that his party will draw the appropriate lessons.
"So we will be doing some analysis and looking at what sort of issues were a barrier for people that did not vote for us in light of the fact that there could be an election any time going forward."
That statement can be read as an acknowledgement that some voters may have had second thoughts about some of the candidates and their views on various issue.
Rustad also revealed that one of those candidates, Marina Sapozhnikov, won't be part of the Conservative campaign when that next election happens. Speaking to a student journalist on election eve, Sapozhnikov had called First Nations a racist slur.
"I find her comments that she made quite offensive," he said. "Certainly, they are not part of who I am or who we are as a party and I can tell you that she will not be a candidate for this party going forward."
Sapozhnikov finished second in the riding of Juan de Fuca-Malahat between the winning NDP candidate.
