B.C. Conservatives 'accept differences' among members as party meets, leader says
Fledgling party, which rose to Official Opposition status, now faces questions over internal dissent
UPDATE, March 1 — B.C. Conservative members grapple with the future direction of the big tent party
ORIGINAL STORY:
The fledgling B.C. Conservative Party will hold its annual general meeting this weekend as members try to find their feet, two weeks into the provincial legislative session, a senior politician and Conservative member said.
Peter Milobar, the Conservative MLA for Kamloops, said in an interview that the party and its diverse range of candidates came together "under very strange circumstances," in the middle of the summer and just weeks before a general election was called.
"I see that we're a very new party, really at its core," he said. "And so, I think we're still finding our feet."
The party had existed on the fringes of B.C. politics for years, but it went from having no members elected in the previous provincial election to within a whisker of forming government in October, with its 44 members making up the Official Opposition.
Its rise came after Kevin Falcon of the B.C. United Party suspended the party's election campaign last August in order to not split the vote on the right, as support for the Conservatives surged.
Some B.C. United members of the legislature -- including Milobar -- jumped to the Conservatives. Others tried the Independent route and lost.
The result is a caucus with divergent views that have been on display during the legislative session. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad described it as "family" issues.
When asked this week if there was a rift within the party, Rustad brushed it off.
"You know, I find it interesting because for the media, and I think for the public, they've never seen a political party that accepts differences."
He said he expected the party's AGM in Nanaimo, B.C., to be a "democratic process" where members make decisions on modernizing the party and making sure it is prepared to take on the NDP in the next election.
Cracks within the caucus became clear when Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie posted on social media on Feb. 22 that there were "zero" confirmed child burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
Rustad said he asked her to take it down, but the post remains up a week later.
Conservative house leader, Áʼa꞉líya Warbus, who is Indigenous, said questioning the narratives of those who survived residential school atrocities is harmful, although she denied she was responding to Brodie's post.
Milobar didn't mention names either when he spoke about residential school "denialism" in the legislature this week.
But he said he had vowed to those in the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation, where the former Kamloops Indian Residential School sits, that he would always speak up against it.
"As you know, my wife, my kids, they're all Indigenous. My grandchildren are Indigenous, my son-in-law is a Kamloops band member.
"These types of things are very personal, and so when denialism does from time to time raise up in the broader conversation, both in B.C. and across the country, it has a direct impact on Tk'emlups," he said in an emotional speech.
Conservative members will elect a new board during the weekend convention, but Rustad told reporters this week that there "isn't a mechanism" for a leadership review at this meeting.
However, he said members would be asked this year if they want a leadership review, in line with the party's constitution.
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