B.C. Conservatives 'accept differences' among members as party meets in AGM: Rustad

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad speaks to reporters following the throne speech at the legislature in Victoria, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press)

NANAIMO, B.C. — Delegates flocked to the fledgling B.C. Conservative Party’s annual general meeting this weekend as new members express divergent views and find their feet two weeks into the legislative session.

More than 800 attended the meeting on Saturday in Nanaimo, B.C., where many who squeezed into the large conference room had to stand at the back. The surge in delegate numbers came after the party moved from the fringes of B.C. politics to become the official Opposition in British Columbia in last October’s election.

Leader John Rustad told the delegates that when he joined the Conservatives just over two years ago, there were only 800 members in the party.

“Yes, we’re going to have growing pains, but growing pains are the sign of a growing party because we are growing into a government-in-waiting,” said Gavin Dew, Conservative MLA for Kelowna-Mission and critic for Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, while speaking on a panel.

“Yes, we’re going to disagree on things but fundamentally what we have to agree on is that we need to end the NDP.”

Peter Milobar, the Conservative MLA for Kamloops, said in an interview ahead of the AGM that the party and its diverse range of candidates came together “under very strange circumstances,” in the middle of the summer and just weeks before a general election was called.

“I see that we’re a very new party, really at its core,” he said. “And so, I think we’re still finding our feet.”

The Conservatives went from having no members elected in the previous provincial election to 44 in October, coming within a whisker of forming government.

Its rise came after Kevin Falcon of the BC United Party suspended the party’s election campaign in August in order to prevent vote-splitting on the right, as support for the Conservatives surged.

Some BC United members of the legislature -- including Milobar -- jumped to the Conservatives. Others tried the Independent route and lost.

The result is a caucus with wide-ranging views that have been on display during the legislative session.

Rustad described it as “family” issues and brushed off questions if there is a rift within the party.

“You know, I find it interesting because for the media, and I think for the public, they’ve never seen a political party that accepts differences.”

He said he expected the party’s AGM to be a “democratic process” where members make decisions on modernizing the party and making sure they are prepared to take on the NDP in the next election.

Cracks within the caucus became clear when Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie posted on social media on Feb. 22 that there were “zero” confirmed child burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Rustad said he asked her to take it down, but the post remains up a week later.

Conservative house leader, A’aliya Warbus, who is Indigenous, said questioning the narratives of those who survived residential school atrocities is harmful, although she denied she was responding to Brodie’s post.

Milobar didn’t mention names either when he spoke about residential school “denialism” in the legislature this week.

But he said he had vowed to those in the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation, where the former residential school in Kamloops sits, that he would always speak up against it.

“As you know, my wife, my kids, they’re all Indigenous. My grandchildren are Indigenous, my son-in-law is a Kamloops band member.

“These types of things are very personal, and so when denialism does from time to time raise up in the broader conversation, both in B.C. and across the country, it has a direct impact on Tk’emlups,” he said in an emotional speech.

Conservative members will elect a new board during the weekend convention, but Rustad told reporters this week that there “isn’t a mechanism” for a leadership review at this meeting.

However, he said members would be asked this year if they want a leadership review, in line with the party’s constitution.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2025.

This is a corrected story. A previous version said the provincial legislative session was one week in rather than two weeks.

Marcy Nicholson, The Canadian Press