B.C. Election: Relentless problems with candidates hurting John Rustad's credibility and campaign

Vaughn Palmer: The B.C. Conservative leader is having trouble getting out his own message as questions about some candidates continue

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Published Oct 11, 2024  •  4 minute read

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad greets workers while campaigning Thursday at Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

VICTORIA — Nearing the end of the third week of the election campaign, B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad scheduled an announcement about the future of B.C. Ferries, part of the slow rollout of a party platform that has yet to be released in full.

Rustad promised an overhaul for the troubled service, a house cleaning at fleet headquarters, and a monthly pass for frequent travellers.

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He’d also give B.C.-based shipyards a better shot at building new vessels, a commitment delivered at the Seaspan yard in North Vancouver. Rustad didn’t explain how he would cover the extra cost of building ships here in B.C. instead of overseas. It could cost twice as much, according to some estimates.

But when he took questions from reporters Thursday, no one asked about his plan for the ferry system.

Instead most of the questions were about messes of the Conservatives own making.

What was Rustad’s response to the just-come-to-light comments about Muslims and Palestinians from Brent Chapman, the Conservative candidate in South Surrey?

“Brent has made an apology. We have two Muslim candidates who are running for us. They both have accepted his apology. I have also accepted Brent’s apology.”

Many were saying the apology was not enough, given the deeply racist comments. Rustad himself said he had “no interest in candidates who are spreading hate and racism.”

Why not ask Chapman to quit?

“It was a statement that was made 10 years ago,” replied Rustad. “I found it offensive, and I know many other people do. People sometimes make mistakes. Brent has already reached out to the people on our team and apologized. They have accepted that apology as I have accepted that apology.”

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Plus with nominations closing two weeks ago, it is too late to replace Chapman with another candidate.

After Rustad had to dump a couple of dubious candidates back in the spring, he insisted that the party had toughened the vetting of candidates. How did the Conservatives manage to overlook Chapman?

“It wasn’t listed as one of the candidate’s social media accounts that we then went and looked and reviewed. So it was something that was missed.”

A big miss.

If Chapman “forgot” to submit that account to the vetting process, or “forgot” what he said on it, that would be unforgivable, given the extreme comments.

Onward went the news conference. Rustad faced a question about his own reference, at the outset of the TV debate, about having witnessed a fatal overdose en route to the studio.

There was no record of any such death. Would he like to take a stab at clarifying?

“Sure,” he replied. “On the way to the debate, there was an individual — where there was people who were working on this individual, doing chest compressions. I’m very pleased, though, that the person who apparently was saved — the life was saved. But that is what I saw.”

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I was not on the call for Rustad’s news conference. From a reading of the transcript, he faced seven questions about the Chapman controversy, three about things he’d said during the debate, one question on health care and one about LNG. As noted above, he wasn’t asked about his plan for the ferries.

Toward the end, Rustad tried to deflect a question about his own performance during the debate, by turning the spotlight back on Premier David Eby and the New Democrats.

“We have seen a premier who has lied almost every single day of this campaign. I would even call him a pathological liar. You see billboards with lies on it. You see information that’s going out to households with lies on it,” said Rustad.

‘We’ve got a premier who is an activist who fired a Jewish cabinet minister to placate a mob that burned flags and screamed death to Canadians. He actually wrote handbooks offering people like that how to get arrested and how to sue the police.

“There is a stark difference that people will have as they go to the polls: whether they want more of the disastrous policies that we’re seeing today or whether they want to elect a party that’s going to be focused on building a future, building optimism, and making sure that people want to stay and live here in this province.”

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It was a stronger attack than Rustad managed at most points during the debate.

But it came on a day when the news cycle was preoccupied with the problems that Rustad and the Conservatives had made for themselves.

Back in the days before B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon made his alliance with Rustad, he warned the campaign could take this direction.

Rustad was presiding over “a clown car of candidates that aren’t ready to govern,” said Falcon.

Come the election, the clowns would be exposed. The revelations would generate distractions that would dominate the news and let the NDP off the hook.

It has taken awhile to get to that point.

But the relentlessness has taken its toll on the Conservative campaign and Rustad’s credibility. With a week to go, both appear to be stalled.

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