John Rustad is the leader of the BC Conservatives, a party that recently rose rapidly out of the political dust and is now neck-and-neck with the NDP in the polls ahead of the Oct. 19 B.C. election.
Who is John Rustad?
Rustad, 61, is the MLA for the riding of Nechako Lakes in northern B.C., a region where he has represented constituents since 2005.
He has largely served as a BC Liberal, until he was kicked out of the party in 2022 for questioning climate change science. He then briefly sat as an independent before becoming leader of the BC Conservative Party in 2023.
Rustad’s time in office included a four-year stint as the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation during Christy Clark’s Liberal government.
Where do John Rustad’s BC Conservatives stand in the B.C. election race?
Polls show the BC Conservatives, which have not elected an MLA since the 1970s, are statistically tied with the governing BC NDP, led by David Eby.
BC United, led by Kevin Falcon, struggled to gain the attention of voters following an inopportune name change (from BC Liberals). In late August, Falcon stunned many followers when he announced he was suspending BC United’s election campaign and urged supporters to vote for the BC Conservatives.
What do John Rustad and the BC Conservatives have to say about climate and environment issues?
Rustad was removed from the BC Liberal caucus in 2022 for promoting a social media post that expressed doubt about climate change science.
B.C. has had a carbon pricing regime for 16 years and has long been pointed to as a world leader on this front, but Rustad has promised to get rid of it if his party forms government (although he has admitted that as long as the federal regime is still in place, B.C. will be subject to carbon pricing).
A BC Conservative Party government would walk away from the province’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of its land base by 2030, Rustad told The Narwhal in an interview.
“The Conservatives would absolutely axe doing that,” Rustad said. “That’s nonsense.”The party pledges to continue and enhance support for natural resource extraction like old-growth logging and “dramatically” expanding B.C.’s natural gas production and LNG export facilities, while getting new pipelines built. The BC Conservatives also say they will crack down on people who protest such projects. They also say they would repeal B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
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