BURST
Conservative Leader John Rustad acknowledged Thursday that he had caucus leadership search MLAs’ phones at a Monday night caucus meeting after details of a push for a vote on Rustad’s leadership was leaked to the media.
He told reporters at the legislature that it isn’t something that happens on a regular basis but that it was caucus members who actually called for it.
“The MLAs in caucus expressed willingness and interest and desire to make sure that we try to find out who was responsible for potential leaks,” said Rustad. “And so they expressed interest to say, ‘Yeah, let’s deal with this. Let’s look at this now.’ So that’s what we did. We had MLAs look at the other MLAs’ phones, make sure that there was nothing that had gone out. It was appropriate. They all wanted that to happen.”
He did say when pressed further, however, that some MLAs were more enthusiastic than others.
According to multiple sources, it was deputy whip Reann Gasper that was tasked with going through colleagues’ phones after CKNW radio host Jas Johal tweeted out that caucus chairperson Jody Toor and caucus whip Bruce Banman had stopped an attempt by an MLA to put Rustad’s continued leadership to a secret ballot.
Both private and legislature-issued phones were searched.
Rustad said the person who had leaked internal caucus discussions wasn’t found and that he’s concerned about continuing leaks.
At one point during Thursday’s scrum with reporters, Rustad’s chief of staff, Brad Zubyk, threatened to ban a reporter from The Canadian Press from asking questions of Rustad after they asked if the Tory leader was paranoid.
“You’re cut off,” he said, calling the query “bulls–t” and saying that the reporter would never get another question again.
Rustad said “no” in response to being asked whether he was paranoid.
University of B.C. political scientist Stewart Prest said he believes Rustad’s days as the leader of the Conservatives “is numbered” as it’s clear that he no longer feels he can trust his caucus.
He said the best the Tory leader can hope for is to hold on.
“Mr. Rustad is no longer sure of who within his caucus he feels he can trust and by extension, it seems pretty clear that there are members of his caucus who are talking to the media about what’s going on inside the party,” said Prest.
“I think he is hoping something changes the conversation and allows them to have some time to solidify his leadership hold over the party once again. But there doesn’t really seem to be anything that is going to perform that miracle for him.”
In late September, a party leadership review wrapped up with Rustad garnering 70.66 per cent support among the 1,268 members who voted, a turnout of less than 20 per cent.
Near the end of the review, allegations emerged of attempted ballot stuffing in favour of Rustad after 2,238 suspicious sign-ups showed up on the membership list for Kelowna.
Two staffers were later let go by the party over the sign-ups.
Immediately following the release of the results from the leadership review, Rustad kicked Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko out of caucus for plotting against him, something she at first denied but later admitted.
The next week he fired party staffer Lindsay Shepherd over comments she made about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation flag, angering social conservative members of the party and certain members of the Conservative board of directors.
Since then there have been rumours about MLAs leaving or trying to unseat Rustad as party leader.
Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee changed her profile picture over the weekend to a shot of her and Sturko as a way of voicing solidarity with her former colleague, and Chilliwack North MLA Heather Maahs went to an event with an anti-trans activist at the legislature hosted by the OneBC party against Rustad’s direction to caucus members not to attend.
Rustad told reporters he hadn’t spoken to Boultbee about the picture and that party whips would handle any disciplinary measures dished out to Maahs.
Sturko said the fact that her ex-leader is resorting to going through the phones of his caucus members shows how little control he actually has.
“Frankly, it’s shocking to see that it would have really degraded to that,” she said. “It’s shocking that he continues to go on, certainly the fact that I’m standing here in a scrum with all of you asking me if a grown man and his team looked into other adults’ cellphones.”