BURST
The race to replace John Rustad as leader of the B.C. Conservatives is heating up, with the rules for the race released last week and five high-profile candidates trying to convince members they should be the one to lead the party into the future.
Brad Zubyk, Rustad’s former chief of staff, said several candidates are already positioning themselves in ways that differentiate them from their opponents.
He pointed to Prince George-North Cariboo MLA Sheldon Clare trying to paint himself as the only “true-blue conservative” in the race, while former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Iain Black touts his political experience, and prominent academic Caroline Elliott gets the jump on the controversy over the Cowichan land title decision in Richmond.
The other candidates are Capilano University chancellor Yuri Fulmer, who is promoting his experience in business running a number of A&W franchises, and Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar, who is relying on his role as the party’s prominent finance critic and as a former mayor of Nanaimo.
Of the five serious candidates, three have ties to the former B.C. Liberal party. Black was minister of labour and minister of small business technology under Gordon Campbell. Caroline Elliott was a staffer and party vice-president. Milobar was a party MLA from 2017 to 2024 before crossing the floor to the Conservatives.
“What I can’t figure out is who the core front-runner is right now, because I could be convinced that four or five of them may win,” said Zubyk, who said that given the party only has 7,000 to 9,000 members, whoever can sign up the most new people will have a major edge.
“I don’t think we even know who the electorate is yet. So it’s sort of hard to talk about.”
Contestants have until Feb. 15 to get accepted by the party as an official candidate, with an initial sign-up fee of $5,000, shortly followed by a second fee of $10,000 once they have been accepted. Candidates will be expected to provide $135,000 to the party over the course of the race, with $20,000 of that in the form of a deposit that will eventually be returned.
The deadline for signing up new members will be April 18, with voting beginning May 9, and the winner announced on May 30. A spending cap of $2 million has also been imposed on entrants.
Mike McDonald, who was chief of staff to B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark, said he has been hearing plenty of buzz around Elliott’s campaign, after it was revealed that her team will be led by Conservative strategist Kory Teneycke, director of communications for former prime minister Stephen Harper and the campaign manager for Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
But, he said, winning a leadership race and winning a general election are two separate challenges.
“I think the conversation we’re going to hear in the leadership is probably more focused around conservative members and the conservative base. We’re going to hear issues that may not have the same amplification in a general election,” said McDonald.
“Running a leadership campaign on repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act or taking a tough stance on First Nation rights might be what really motivates Conservative voters. But you know, the issues that people in the suburbs and in communities around B.C. are concerned about are, that may be one of them, but they’re going to be concerned about affordability. They’re going to be concerned about health care.”
Elliott said the race is about what values the Conservatives bring to the table and what it means to be more generally conservative in B.C. She said she wants to bring an end to the “radical” policies of B.C. premier David Eby and chart a new direction for the province.
“Look, if more money was the solution, everything would be working in B.C., right?” said Elliott. “We’d have an excellent public safety situation. We’d have excellent health-care outcomes. We’d have excellent education outcomes. But we don’t because they’re spending with no measurables and no interest in measuring in results.”
Whoever becomes leader will also have to deal with fractious internal drama over the past year that led to the resignation or ejection of five MLAs and Rustad stepping down.
Candidates disagree on how divided the caucus is, with Fulmer warning that with “every outburst, every undisciplined tweet, we have not been a credible alternative,” while Milobar believes there is more uniting than dividing party MLAs.
“When you take a step back and actually look and cut through the noise, I look at a very talented and diverse caucus that has a lot of life experience in exact critic roles that they’re in,” the Kamloops Centre MLA said.
Clare agrees, but believes the party needs to ensure it has “the supports in the tent that are going to hold it up,” referring to the current size of the Conservative coalition.
Black likened the situation to the B.C. Liberals of the 1990s when Gordon Wilson was forced out after leading the party to official Opposition status in the 1991 election, leaving it to Gordon Campbell to take the reins and defeat the NDP.
“The evolution … of people and the growing pains, and some candidates leaving and new candidates coming in, and the enormous work that Gordon Campbell put into recruiting candidates, getting the structure put in place, getting the confidence of people to donate to the party, to give it the money it needs,” he said.
“This party is right in the middle of that process right now.”