{"id":45022,"date":"2024-09-20T01:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T08:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=45022"},"modified":"2024-09-18T11:16:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T18:16:17","slug":"rustad-revives-tories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/09\/20\/rustad-revives-tories\/","title":{"rendered":"Rustad revives Tories"},"content":{"rendered":"

BC Conservative leader John Rustad believes \u201cwe need to have a heavy focus on getting our economy back up and running in this province.\u201d (photo from conservativebc.ca<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

John Rustad\u2019s party has been on a bit of a losing streak. It\u2019s been 96 years since the BC Conservatives last won a provincial election. But Rustad \u2013 and plenty of keen political observers \u2013 see a once-in-a-century opportunity when voters choose a new government Oct. 19.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls show Rustad\u2019s Conservatives, who took less than 2% of the vote in the last provincial election, close to, tied with, or in some cases surpassing the incumbent New Democrats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a dramatic deal to unite right-of-centre forces and forestall a reelected NDP government, the BC United party folded its tent last month. Kevin Falcon, who rebranded the official opposition BC Liberals to the BC United party last year, made a deal with Rustad to end the United campaign and endorse the Conservatives. Falcon\u2019s party had plummeted so far in the polls that complete obliteration seemed likely. The move blindsided members of Falcon\u2019s caucus, some of whom are now running as independents, a few of whom are running as Conservatives and several more of whom have retired from politics.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Jewish Independent<\/i>, Rustad said Jewish British Columbians should see him as a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community will find an ally in me,\u201d said Rustad, citing rising antisemitism as unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening within communities and people not feeling safe, and what\u2019s happening in our universities and in our school system and, quite frankly, in government \u2013 that is something that I will work very hard to bring to an end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rustad supports the current government\u2019s commitment to mandatory Holocaust education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was actually something I [said] we would be implementing before even the government talked about doing it,\u201d said Rustad, who reflected on the impact a visit to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre had on him during a tour of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. \u201cThere are too many people in British Columbia that don\u2019t understand our full history and need to understand it \u2013 not just British Columbia\u2019s or Canada\u2019s history, but world history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rustad was moved by the words of a Jewish woman in her 60s who recently told the Conservative leader she is considering leaving the province because of the antisemitism here. Her parents were Holocaust survivors, Rustad recalled the woman saying, and the climate in BC right now feels \u201ca lot like 1932 from what her parents had described,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked at that, to think that that\u2019s how people could feel about what\u2019s going on here in British Columbia,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, to me, that really hit home in terms of changes that we need to be able to do in British Columbia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing against antisemitism and against hate in any form, said Rustad, is core to who he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should be able to be safe, people who come here, they should be able to raise their children and not feel as though they\u2019re being persecuted or not feel that sort of fear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Issues Rustad is hearing from voters include employment and affordability, which he said are leading too many people to consider abandoning the province.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith one in three people in BC thinking about leaving this province, and particularly one in two youth thinking about leaving this province, having them being able to build a future in BC is critical and that means we have to be able to address affordability, which includes housing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can address those things but if people don\u2019t have a job, they\u2019re not going to stay. So, we need to have a heavy focus on getting our economy back up and running in this province, and start to address this massive deficit that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping people in the province also requires that people feel safe,\u00a0<\/span>he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means we have to address addictions and crime, to make people feel safe in British Columbia \u2013 and that crime is not just physical crime but also hate crimes,\u201d Rustad said.<\/p>\n

Appropriate access to health care is another topic Rustad will raise throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n

The folding of the BC United party and the agreement to incorporate some United MLAs and candidates into the Conservative slate has been a sometimes-public struggle. The Conservatives had already identified candidates in the vast majority of the province\u2019s 93 ridings. BC United also had most of their candidates in place. The Falcon-Rustad deal meant many candidates, mostly BC United, had to bow out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been interesting, obviously, having options,\u201d Rustad said of his party\u2019s juggling act with a surplus of nominees. \u201cBut, at the same time, I believe strongly in loyalty to my candidates, to people who have worked hard to help us build this party and so I\u2019ve tried my best to honour that as part of this process, but also to make sure that we honoured the discussion that we had between the United party and the Conservative party.\u201d<\/p>\n

He estimated that somewhat fewer than a dozen BC United candidates have now been nominated by the Conservatives and said his party is still in talks with United officials about other issues. BC United still exists as a party, even though it has stopped campaigning. It could be revived in future and must run at least two candidates in the election after this one to maintain its registration.<\/p>\n

The BC Conservatives have not elected a member to the BC Legislature since a 1978 by-election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rustad and the seven other members of his caucus were all elected as BC Liberals. Rustad was fired from the Liberal caucus two years ago by Falcon and became Conservative leader last year. He represents the sprawling central BC riding of Nechako Lakes and was first elected in 2005. He served as minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation and as minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations under former premier Christy Clark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BC Conservative leader John Rustad believes \u201cwe need to have a heavy focus on getting our economy back up and running in this province.\u201d (photo from conservativebc.ca) John Rustad\u2019s party has been on a bit of a losing streak. It\u2019s been 96 years since the BC Conservatives last won a provincial election. But Rustad \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2551,801,23057,23432,23055,3137,3225,2477,23053,23052,23500,5731],"class_list":["post-45022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-addiction","tag-antisemitism","tag-bc-conservatives","tag-bc-election","tag-bc-united","tag-economy","tag-health-care","tag-housing","tag-john-rustad","tag-kevin-falcon","tag-politics-democracy","tag-safety"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}