Rob Shaw: In the B.C. election, NDP attacks can't dent Rustad's armour
Even by modern standards, this has been a remarkably ugly campaign so far.
By: Rob Shaw
VANCOUVER — In almost every horror movie, there is a moment where the shambling monster is hit by a barrage of weaponry — hatchets, bullets, rockets, fire and explosions — but when the smoke clears, it emerges unscathed, still advancing undaunted towards its prey.
That’s a lot like watching the B.C. Conservatives these days.
The party has faced an absolute deluge of attacks by its NDP rivals during the first two weeks of the British Columbia election campaign.
The governing NDP has thrown everything it has at the Conservatives, including near-daily social media drops of such political intensity they should, by all rights, have imploded the Conservative campaign (take, for example, Wednesday’s release of a Conservative candidate’s tweet in which he posted about believing the COVID-19 vaccine causes AIDS).
And yet, the Conservatives are still standing. Not only that, the party continues to surge upward in the polls. A Leger survey on Wednesday had the Conservatives three points ahead of the governing NDP among decided voters.
B.C. New Democrats appear equal parts surprised and panicked that their best attempts to destroy the Conservatives have failed to halt the party’s advancing popularity after two weeks of campaigning.
Nonetheless, NDP leader David Eby keeps trying to sharpen the point that Conservative leader John Rustad is an unreliable extremist who should be allowed nowhere near the premier’s office.
“I wouldn’t trust John Rustad to run my Thanksgiving dinner conversation with the family, let alone a hospital where my kids have to be safe,” Eby said Wednesday during the campaign’s first leaders debate, on a Vancouver radio station.
“David Eby only wants to go negative, and I get that because he can’t defend his record,” replied Rustad. “He can’t defend what he’s doing. So that’s what a weak leader does.”
Even by modern standards, the B.C. election has been a remarkably ugly campaign so far.
The NDP has released numerous videos of bizarre comments Rustad has made over the last year, such as claiming vaccines are an attempt to control the population, questioning the global “anti-human” agenda, protesting against “expecting our kids to eat bugs” from environmentally-friendly cricket factories and questioning how carbon emissions can be bad for the environment when humans are carbon-based lifeforms.
New Democrats have called Rustad a kook, a crazy person, a climate denier, a conspiracy theorist, a whacko, a weirdo, a fear-mongeror, a liar, and a far-right extremist, among other things. The goal has been to eviscerate Rustad’s character, so that even if voters are angry at NDP policies, they can’t bring themselves to go through with actually casting a ballot for the Conservatives.
It seemed like a feasible strategy. But New Democrats have been surprised on the doorstep by the depth of public displeasure at their policies on decriminalization, public safety, Indigenous land reforms, health care, housing and affordability.
Instead of starting the campaign with a springboard of momentum from 22 months under Eby’s leadership, the NDP finds itself digging out from a hole it failed to realize it had sunk into during his premiership. As a result, Eby had to flip-flop on core policy issues, like the carbon tax and involuntary care, to try and realign his course.
Eby found himself on stage in a room full of provincial business leaders in Vancouver on Wednesday being grilled about how he racked up a record $9 billion provincial deficit, triggered a credit downgrade, and failed to table a plan to balance the budget in the future.
“We’ll balance it over time,” Eby said. “We’ll have declining deficits.”
Rustad did not get off scot-free either, with questions about the practicality of his plan to copy Alberta’s law that forbids new taxes or tax increases without a referendum.
The two leaders took turns denigrating each other’s marquee tax-cut proposals — Rustad wants to allow people to write off their mortgage and rental costs, while Eby wants a personal income tax cut for middle-income earners.
But it’s the personal attacks on character and trust which have so far defined the B.C. election.
“John wants to leave people on their own, he wants to cut health care, he wants to abandon the field on affordable housing, turn people over to speculators,” Eby said during Wednesday’s debate.
“Another lie,” said Rustad. “I think British Columbia doesn’t want a premier who’s so easy to lie.”
“You think everyone lies,” retorted Eby. “Climate scientists. (Provincial health officer) Bonnie Henry. Vaccine makers.”
B.C.’s third political party, the Greens, have said the daily display of vitriol between the NDP and Conservatives shows neither should be trusted with an outright majority. The Greens admit they have no hope of actually winning, but are appealing to hold the balance of power with a handful of MLAs in an NDP or Conservative minority government.
“David (Eby) does have a responsibility to acknowledge and recognize the frustration that people feel and how deep that is — it’s so deep that they’re turning to somebody that is using Twitter and conspiracy theorists to guide them in their decision and policy making,” said Green leader Sonia Furstenau.
“This is a very worrisome place for British Columbia. I’d say at this point, don’t give all the power to either of them.”
On that, perhaps, voters could agree. But there’s still a lot of campaigning left, before election day on Oct. 19.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics. He now reports for CHEK News and writes for Glacier Media, as well as the website Northern Beat. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast and YouTube show Political Capital, and the weekly political correspondent for CBC Radio’s All Points West and Radio West programs. You can reach him at rob@robshawnews.com.
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Like the school yard bullies that they have no idea they emulate, the left/NDP just call people names hoping something will stick. We, the citizens are over it and want a more pragmatic, open and honorable government. Rustad and the Conservatives all the way.
What creates more actual harm? Running massive deficits or espousing nutty conspiracy theories?
For example, in AB Danielle Smith flirted with the chem trail conspiracy last week but I expect that to have zero impact on my life. So interesting that she thinks that but if she is going to run a tighter ship than Nenshi, I guess I’ll put up with chem trail comments.