John Rustad faces further challenges within his own caucus as fall session begins

The Vancouver Sun
Conservative Leader John Rustad at the UBCM convention in Victoria on September 25, 2025.

Conservative Leader John Rustad was facing further dissension within his ranks as the fall legislative session got underway in Victoria, with expectations high that he could face a vote on his leadership from within caucus as soon as Monday evening.

There was a caucus meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. and there were reports swirling around that a number of MLAs were unhappy with Rustad’s leadership amid controversies, including allegations of ballot stuffing surrounding the party’s recently completed leadership review, and the dismissal of both Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko and party staffer Lindsay Shepherd.

While MLAs cannot remove the leader directly, they can vote to dismiss him as caucus leader, which would all but require him to resign as party leader. Rustad’s resignation would be followed by the appointment of an interim leader and a leadership race for his successor.

Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Rustad refused to comment on the potential for such a vote, instead simply saying that he knows his MLAs have many different views but believes they are all united in defeating the NDP.

“My perspective on it is that, obviously we have a lot of people that have a lot of opinions, but I and I think most of caucus, if not all of the caucus, is united in the fact that the damage that’s being done by this NDP government has to come to an end,” he told reporters.

There were also rumours floating around that Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee would leave caucus after she changed her social media profile picture to an image of herself and Sturko.

Asked about the rumours, Rustad didn’t answer. Boultbee didn’t stop to answer reporters’ questions.

Sturko said she hadn’t had any conversations with Boultbee about her possible departure from the Conservatives but that her stance remains that her former party should seek new leadership.

“It’s a nice picture. It’s actually from about a year ago, my spouse was in the Ironman that was the last one in Penticton, and I went and did an event with Amelia,” Sturko said.

“I wouldn’t read too much into it, but definitely flattered and honoured that she chose to use that as a profile pic.”

Rustad finished the October 2024 provincial election with 44 MLAs, only three less than the NDP. He has now fallen to 40 with the dismissal of Sturko and Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie.

Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong and Peace River North MLA Dallas Brodie left the caucus alongside Brodie’s dismissal in March, with Armstrong joining Brodie in forming the new OneBC party.

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