John Rustad removed as leader of B.C. Conservative Party, but he says he's not leaving

B.C. Conservativist company says Rustad is come out as leader after he refuses to quit | force & Politics

Rustad says he remains B.C. Conservative leader

Trevor Halford says he's been selected B.C. Conservative interim leader

B.C. Conservative caucus voted to remove Rustad as leader: MLA

Korky Neufeld says he still considers Rustad leader of B.C. Conservatives

Some Conservative MLAs express support for Rustad

John Rustad and Trevor Halford both went to talk to House Speaker Raj Chouhan this afternoon.

While Chouhan would not say what was discussed, he said "a decision" will be released from his office through a statement but he won't say when or what he’s deciding —- he could simply say it's not his role to decide on a party leader.

We also don’t know when we will hear directly from the B.C. Conservatives about who exactly their party leader is — but they said any announcement will be given in a news release. It’s unclear if a vote that some caucus members said happened earlier today is binding.

We're wrapping live updates for now, but B.C. Legislature reporter Katie DeRosa and I are continuing to watch for any updates.

To get caught up on today’s developments, you can sort updates from oldest to newest by clicking the "Latest first" button below the video carousel. We’ll also have more analysis on cbc.ca/bc.

A political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia says the turmoil inside the B.C. Conservatives has created an “unprecedented” situation in provincial politics.

“As of right now it’s not clear who is leading the Official Opposition in the legislature,” said Stewart Prest. “We don’t know where the story is going right now from here.”

Prest said leadership struggles in Canadian politics typically end with the leader stepping down “when the signals are this clear.”

“We have seen leaders drag their heels and refuse to see the writing on the wall,” he said. “They don’t have confidence in the party they hope to lead — their time has run out.”

He compared the situation to former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s departure earlier this year, noting Trudeau stepped down once it became clear he no longer had the support to continue.

“In that sense, Rustad’s decision not to resign is highly unusual,” Prest said.

“It’s hard to see a way for Rustad to continue.”

Conservative House leader Á'a:líya Warbus has just spoken with me at the legislature, saying members will have clarity on who is the party leader by the end of the day. (Each party has a house leader who is not the party leader.)

"We need to give anybody who isn't involved in, or felt that they weren't informed — although they were — of the caucus meeting to all sit in one room and give everyone the respect to be able to make that decision as a group, although a majority of the caucus has spoken."

When asked what the party will do if Rustad won't step down, she said, "that remains to be seen."

Sturko, now an Independent MLA, says she is glad her former Conservative colleagues are taking action to remove Rustad from leadership.

"I think that the caucus is doing the right thing by trying to bring themselves in a better position," she told reporters in the legislature.

"We need to have a strong Opposition to be able to form the next government."

Sturko says if the party’s leadership were to change and she was invited back, she would strongly consider the offer.

“I don’t know if we even have a precedent on this one. I don’t know that there’s another party or leader we can imagine in recent memory that had to go through something like this,” she said.

“But it is a mess in B.C.”

Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay called it a “constitutional quagmire” and questioned whether the provincial party’s caucus actually has the power to remove their leader.

“Unless it's cast in stone, in terms of the Reform Act like the Conservative Party has federally, there is no real mechanism to just vote the guy out,” MacKay said.

Some Conservative MLAs express support for Rustad

B.C. Conservative MLAs Reann Gasper, Jody Toor and Kristina Loewen expressed support for John Rustad after the party board announced his removal as leader. 'There is an order to the process, and this is out of order,' deputy caucus whip Gasper said.

In the hallways of the legislature, several Conservative MLAs are continuing to refer to Rustad as their leader.

Reann Gasper, MLA for Abbotsford-Mission and the deputy caucus whip, says she believes the board’s decision did not follow proper caucus procedure.

“There is an order to the process and this is out of order,” she said. “I am disappointed in my colleagues. I am disappointed in the way that this has taken shape.”

Jody Toor, MLA for Langley-Willowbrook, also insisted Rustad was still the leader, saying she had no knowledge of a vote to temporarily install Halford.

Kristina Loewen, who represents Kelowna Centre, also said she was unaware of any meeting where caucus members were asked to decide Rustad’s future.

There has been a lot of chatter and speculation over which types of B.C. Conservatives Rustad has lost support from — former members of the B.C. Liberals who were more centrist, or more populist and right-wing insurgents who were the original base of the party?

The truth is it’s a mix of both.

Those on the party's right disagreed strongly with his decision to fire staffer Lindsay Shepherd after she called the Survivors' Flag — which honours residential school survivors — a "disgrace" and a "fake flag". They also took issue with leading members of Rustad's communications team being former NDP supporters.

But former MLAs Amelia Boultbee and Elenore Sturko, who were closer to the centre, have argued that Rustad failed to unite all parts of the party.

Put another way, the B.C. Conservative Party is a big tent that came together very quickly before last year's election — and in the long run, Rustad has been unable to corral loyalty on either side.

Today's vote comes after months of rising tension within the B.C. Conservative Party over Rustad's leadership.

He has ejected two MLAs and three others have resigned in the past year.

Dallas Brodie, now leader of the OneBC party, was removed from the Conservatives in March for "mocking" residential school survivors. Tara Armstrong, who formed OneBC with Brodie, and Jordan Kealy left the party after her departure.

Rustad then removed Eleanor Sturko in September following the outcome of his leadership review. Amelia Boultbee left in October, saying she had witnessed Rustad’s "unravelling."

In an attempt to identify people leaking party information, Rustad told reporters in October that MLAs’ personal and work phones were searched in a caucus meeting.

Speaking with reporters in Victoria about the fall legislative session earlier today, Premier David Eby said the turmoil inside the B.C. Conservative Party comes as "no surprise."

"This is not a surprise that we continue to see this chaos," Eby said.

"The kinds of people the Conservatives brought into the legislature, the anti-vax conspiracy theories, the pro-Trump tweets, the YouTube bloggers — I don’t know how you hold a group together with that kind of hodgepodge of craziness."

For those wondering why the B.C. Conservative Party has used the phrase "professionally incapacitated" to describe Rustad in their release, it's likely due to the wording of the party’s constitution, where it says: "The Leader can only be removed from office by resignation, death, incapacitation, or the leadership review vote resulting in less than fifty percent (50%) support of the Party Members in good standing who vote in a universal secret paper ballot."

Rustad is alive, has refused to resign, and recently won a leadership review with 71 per cent support.

So the only way for him to be removed is by "incapacitation". The party's board of directors is essentially arguing that the majority of caucus and board being against him makes him professionally “incapacitated” — but if Rustad disagrees, it might be up to lawyers to argue what exactly that word means.

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