Rob Shaw: A coup, an awkward Christmas party, and a confused conservative caucus
How a "night of the long gingerbread houses" left B.C. MLAs unsure who was their leader.
By: Rob Shaw
If you come at the king, you best not miss. It’s a famous line from The Wire, and it's also come to define the last year of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad's political career. Several have tried to take him out, only to come up short and find themselves punished, ostracized or fired from the Conservative party.
It took a coordinated effort from 20 MLAs and most of the party's board this week to remove Rustad — and even then, for several hours on Wednesday, the coup looked like it had been unsuccessful. Can you remove a leader who refuses to acknowledge he's been removed? What if they just keep on showing up for work as if nothing has happened?
It made for some truly bizarre scenes at the B.C. legislature.
At one point Wednesday afternoon, the Conservative party had issued a news release saying Rustad was no longer leader, a majority of caucus stood behind a new interim leader, Rustad's likeness had been scrubbed from the Conservative party website, and yet he simply walked into the legislative chamber for question period and sat at the desk of the official Opposition leader as if nothing had happened.
A stalemate between two factions gripped the party Wednesday night, spilling over into the most awkward caucus Christmas party in B.C. political history, where a nominally-deposed Rustad stood at the Union Club in Victoria to deliver Yuletide greetings to a room full of people who'd spent the day actively brandishing knives against him.
Thursday morning, under immense pressure, with the party coming apart at the seams (and several in caucus likely nursing hangovers), Rustad finally quit.
"There's plenty of opportunity to have fought this," he said, standing alone at a press conference with media. "But that's essentially like saying I want a civil war, I want to have sides divided, I want to take our party and drag it through a fight. And I look at that and say, that's not why I built this Conservative party.”
You could make a credible argument the party had been in a kind of civil war state for months already.
A far-right breakaway party called OneBC has been gaining political momentum at the expense of the Conservatives since Rustad fired MLA Dallas Brodie for mocking residential school survivors in March.
Star critic and former RCMP officer Elenore Sturko tried to organize a caucus non-confidence vote on behalf of angry MLAs in September and was fired by Rustad when he found out.
MLA Amelia Boutlbee quit in October, declaring Rustad unfit for office (in response, Rustad questioned her mental health and searched the phones of his MLAs to check for leaks to the media.)
And the bulk of the B.C. Conservative board came out in October and demanded Rustad's resignation, to which he responded by suggesting they replace the board.
For weeks, a growing group of MLAs tried to confront the leader inside the caucus, only to find their attempts stymied by Rustad supporters in key positions of caucus chair and whip. Rustad managed to limp on as leader through sheer force of will.
Alarm bells began to ring on the weekend, however.
The B.C. Conservative party is functionally broke, with members refusing to donate with Rustad as leader. Headquarters started laying off staff. The party's executive director volunteered to work for free for December to save jobs.
Over the weekend, dissidents inside the caucus and the party came together as a kind of rebel alliance, to draw up plans. When Rustad cancelled the final caucus meetings before winter break, they sprang into action before MLAs left the legislature. Instead of a Tuesday night caucus meeting, Rustad organized a rib fest and gingerbread house team-building exercise for MLAs. As the rebellion brewed, someone cleverly dubbed it, "the night of the long gingerbread houses."
Twenty MLAs in the 39-member caucus had signed declarations of non-confidence in Rustad by Wednesday morning, and took it upon themselves to call an emergency caucus meeting to install interim leader Trevor Halford.
Rustad declared the meeting invalid. At least 10 MLAs did not attend. But the mutiny was by then already in motion.
The party board passed a motion declaring Rustad "professionally incapacitated" due to the slim caucus vote of non-confidence, and removed him as leader. Moments later, it issued a press release describing Rustad as fired, and quickly scrubbed him from the B.C. Conservative website.
It was by then only mid-afternoon Wednesday, and the legislature's question period was about to start.
Halford led a group of MLAs down the Speaker's corridor, as interim leader. Meanwhile, a counter group of five MLAs loyal to Rustad emerged, loudly declaring Rustad the one true legitimate leader.
Journalists camped out at the entrance to the chamber shouting: "Do you know who your party leader is?" as Conservative MLAs walked by. Many admitted they did not.
Rustad himself emerged, sauntering into the chamber and taking his seat as leader of the Opposition. Halford visibly grimaced. Other MLAs awkwardly stared at their desks, or into space, or shot daggers with their eyes at rival members of their own team.
After QP, Rustad ordered his attorney general critic to abandon debate on remaining bills. Premier David Eby’s government quickly passed them unopposed, declared the winter session over, and stepped back agog to watch the Conservatives fight amongst themselves.
Skirmishes occurred into the evening and through the Christmas party. The rebel alliance even drew up contingency plans to cancel Rustad's party membership, should he persist.
But by Thursday morning, Rustad instead gave up the ghost.
"I remember when I was booted out of the (BC) Liberal party back in 2022, I was prepared just to retire, and my wife convinced me that I should carry forward and try to make this change, this difference," he said. "And I think I have made that change. I made a huge change and difference in terms of politics in British Columbia.
"But I had to make sure that it's not about me. And so if I go forward with a civil war, I'm making it all about me, and that's not what this party should be about."
Had Rustad bowed out months ago, he might have been feted as a kind of godfather of modern B.C. conservatism, having taken the party from no elected seats to two shy of defeating the B.C. NDP in the 2024 provincial election.
But by squandering his goodwill over months of infighting, the congratulations he received upon quitting Thursday were muted and strained at best.
Halford tried to put up a visible show of unity Thursday, by having the B.C. Conservative caucus gather around him for a press conference. Yet at least three Rustad loyalists refused to attend.
"I'm feeling confident that this caucus is focused on the next chapter ahead," he said. "That's going to be a great leadership race, and really making sure British Columbians know that they have a government in waiting, and we're ready to take on that role."
The B.C. Conservatives a government in waiting? Not in its current form. Not by a long shot.
But the party has a chance to turn it around with a leadership race. Assuming it can get one held, before the B.C. New Democrats, smelling blood in the water, swoop in to call an early election to try and consolidate their one-seat majority into something stronger at the expense of a Conservative party that remains its own worst enemy.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics. He now reports for CHEK News out of Victoria. He’s the host of the weekly podcast and YouTube show Political Capital, a weekly political correspondent for CBC Radio’s All Points West and Radio West programs, and a contributing columnist to Business in Vancouver and BC Business Magazine. You can reach him at rob@robshawnews.com.
The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today. Please note: a donation is not a subscription, and will not grant access to paywalled content. It’s just a way of thanking us for what we do. If you’re looking to subscribe and get full access, it’s that other blue button!
The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Please follow us on social media! Facebook x 2: On The Line Podcast here, and The Line Podcast here. Instagram. Also: TikTok. BlueSky. LinkedIn. Matt’s Twitter. The Line’s Twitter.Jen’s Twitter. Contact us by email: lineeditor@protonmail.com
12 years of living and working in BC 1990's-2000's.
I am convinced that for about 50 years BC must be ruled by a Military Commission for Restoring Civilizational Sanity. Strictly controlled educational curriculum to instill independent critical thinking, to instill rejection of any form of extremism, and to instill everyday practice of vigorous open debate. No elections for 30 years, then 20 years of advisory only elections.
The current moment in BC politics certainly seems to rhyme with the '90s: NDP government initially led by a pragmatic centrist, who's succeeded by a more ideological leader who spends like a drunken sailor. The old right wing BC party finally collapses in on itself, and a new right wing party rapidly grows to replace it. However, the leader who started the rise gets replaced by somebody else. In the '90s, the NDP premiers were Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark. The old right wing party was Social Credit, and the new one was the BC Liberals. Gordon Wilson took the Liberals to opposition status, but was replaced by Gordon Campbell who eventually took them on to form government.
What's different this time is that there's an incipient civil war on the political right between populists and the older establishment conservatives. The populists have the energy, but they're politically toxic to a majority of the voting public, especially voters in the Lower Mainland who end up holding the balance of power in elections. The right quickly shifted to the BC Conservatives as the vehicle to defeat the NDP in the last election, but it's pretty hard to figure out what else they share in common.