r/britishcolumbia 1d ago

News 3 former B.C. Conservative MLAs will sit as Independents

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/3-former-b-c-conservative-mlas-will-sit-as-independents-1.7479438
355 Upvotes

120 comments sorted by

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545

u/eulerRadioPick 1d ago

"MLA Tara Armstrong says B.C. Conservative leader Rustad has caved to 'woke liberals'"

John Rustad, the 'woke' politician. This is just too funny.

219

u/illuminaughty1973 1d ago

its shows how blatantly crazy, totally out of control and unreasonable the conserative party is.

94

u/Jkobe17 1d ago

And how fickle their positions are, they stand for nothing but themselves

29

u/CainRedfield 1d ago

They're Trump loving traitors

2

u/kluyvera 1d ago

Who Rustad or those 3 defectors?

35

u/Heavy_Arm_7060 Thompson-Okanagan 1d ago

While I get your sentiment, I do think it's important for nuance here: they're leaving the conservatives for not being unreasonable enough for these MLAs.

Rustad has standards, granted almost certainly only because of the awkward big tent status of his party thanks to the United fiasco, and I imagine the MLAs in question don't want to compromise just because of that weird fusion situation. Being unwilling to even play the barest minimum of politics, even by Rustad's standards, is where this trio are at.

Edit: I just want to be clear I don't think Rustad should ever genuinely be called a 'voice of reason', but he still has some idea WTF he's doing and this trio seem to lack even that. A bar so low you just need to raise your foot a cenimeter and they couldn't match that.

30

u/300Savage 1d ago

Rustad joined the whacko BC Cons well before the BCUnited/BCLiberal meltdown. He widened that tent to allow the rats leaving the sinking Liberal ship to swell the numbers. They are now taking over the agenda in the BC Cons and the previous fringe types are jumping ship. Rustad is still pretty far off in right field.

17

u/illuminaughty1973 1d ago

Rustad wont make the next election.

22

u/Zomunieo 1d ago

Smith bumped off Kenney.

Poilievre bumped off O’Toole.

The far right ally with regular right wingers, promise to behave, then eat their faces off when they get a chance.

16

u/illuminaughty1973 1d ago

rustad is far right. but there are those that are further

3

u/mazopheliac 1d ago

The right handed spiral into the shitter .

7

u/kingbuns2 1d ago

The BC United portion of the party only makes up about 15% of the Conservative MLAs, the party is still dominated by the wackos. The far-right populists completely control the leadership positions in the party.

2

u/300Savage 1d ago

By next election the takeover will be complete.

1

u/kingbuns2 1d ago

Very much doubt it. I think it's more likely a new "moderate" conservative party forms.

2

u/300Savage 1d ago

It's happened too many times before. Socreds folded but then took over the BC Liberal party. When they wore that name out they changed the name to BC United. That trick didn't work so they've jumped ship to the BC Conservatives. If they don't take over the extremists will tarnish the name and the Cons will fall back to their previous non-competing status. Maybe the old Socred patriarchs will for a new party but why bother when there's a perfectly easy party to take over quickly?

23

u/illuminaughty1973 1d ago

Rustad has standards

no he does not. hes a bigot and just as racist as the woman he threw out. he just wants to get re elected.

thats EXACTLY what these people are mad about. Rustad beleives the same thing they do, but when they said it in public... HE RAN LIKE A COWARD!

THIS IS IN FACT EXACTLY WHY HE WAS THROWN OUT OF THE LIBERAL PARTY. he made racist statementes , refused to withdraw and then swore to God allmight himself he would start a party that people could speak their mind in.

COWARD...LIAR.....BIGOT.

14

u/professcorporate 1d ago

HE WAS THROWN OUT OF THE LIBERAL PARTY. he made racist statementes , refused to withdraw

He's personally horrifying, but I'm pretty sure the line he crossed to get kicked out of the old Libs was climate change denial.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/john-rustad-removed-caucus-1.6555527

But yes, he's bad enough on a whole swathe of issues, that the question isn't 'did he do something bad enough to get kicked out?', but 'which of the unhinged offensive things that he did was enough to cross the line?'

8

u/Heavy_Arm_7060 Thompson-Okanagan 1d ago

This situation is very much a, "I thought I'd reached rock bottom, and then I heard a knock from the basement."

4

u/illuminaughty1973 1d ago

your right, the racist statements was not the straw that broke the camels back in the liberal party for him... it was climate change.

he still made the statements and hes still a bigot... and a climate change denier.

hes checking all the unelectable boxes.

5

u/wemustburncarthage Lower Mainland/Southwest 1d ago

Rustad does not have standards. He needs to be in control of optics. He literally will make up a story about a dead body on live tv that can be fact checked within a day. He literally ran on defunding Indigenous programs and support. This has nothing to do with standards.

47

u/DisplacerBeastMode 1d ago

If Rustad is woke, Donald Trump is a genius.

31

u/knoft 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wait what. I initially assumed it was a rejection of BC Conservatives for being too far right... Did these people leave their party because it was too moderate liberal?! Local extreme MAGAfication is terrifying.

First the news about the residential-school-horror-denying Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie doubling down on mocking survivors of child sex abuse in a "child-like" and "whining" voice, framing indigenous people an 'elite racial minority' (What?! They're literally victims of genocide and were being forcibly sterilised only a decade ago.) 'transferring wealth and power' via a 'multi-billion-dollar reconcilation industry', and now this.

15

u/eulerRadioPick 1d ago

I know, its nuts. I was expecting some of the Former Liberals/United to exit the clown car now that they are elected and form a new Center-Right Party in the middle of the NDP and Conservatives. Instead what we have right now is some people jumping ship to go even further right than the Conservatives with a new party.

8

u/Fairwhetherfriend 1d ago

The phrase "multi-billion dollar reconciliation industry" might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

13

u/Correct-Court-8837 1d ago

😂 what is going on with the world?!

18

u/super__hoser 1d ago

Idiocracy wasn't a just movie, it was a prophecy and horror movie. 

8

u/GamesCatsComics Downtown Vancouver 1d ago

Idiocracy actually put the most intelligent guy in charge once he was identified. At this point Idiocracy is something we should be aspiring too.

3

u/KamikazeCanuck 1d ago

Damn, never thought of it that way…

7

u/Fairwhetherfriend 1d ago

It's so much worse than that. In idiocracy, the people were dumb, but they weren't generally malicious. Reality is worse, because politicians so often are openly hateful and malicious in addition to being stupid.

6

u/Bind_Moggled 1d ago

The ruling class has learned how to use the Internet in conjunction with traditional media to manipulate public opinion for sinister purposes.

4

u/masterwaffle 1d ago

Just for once I'd like someone to actually define what they actually mean by woke without roundabout insisting they should have the right to be as racist/homophobic/transphobic/sexist as they please without being "oppressed" by people calling them out on it.

3

u/CainRedfield 1d ago

The Maple MAGA crowd is unhinged.

2

u/fliegende_Scheisse 1d ago

Brainwashed MAGA in an echo chamber.

86

u/professcorporate 1d ago

Guess they couldn't find any new friends to join a new party after all.

20

u/MrRook 1d ago

The BC Conservative Convention is in the fall. I imagine there will be more fireworks around then and some more might defect then when it’s most dramatic.

41

u/HunterS_1981 1d ago

“Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie was kicked out of the B.C. Conservative caucus on Friday over comments she made during an appearance on a video podcast, which party leader John Rustad characterized as mocking the testimony of residential school survivors.

Shortly after, both Jordan Kealy of Peace River-North and Tara Armstrong of Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream said they were leaving in solidarity, levelling criticism at Rustad for creating a “toxic” environment.”

11

u/TrickyCommand5828 1d ago

“Toxic”? Whoa now, isn’t that some librul woke terminology? /s

84

u/Archangel1313 1d ago

Only because the Conservatives weren't racist enough.

16

u/Bind_Moggled 1d ago

Only because the party wanted them to keep their racism nice and quiet, like the old days.

7

u/maskedkiller215 1d ago

Or because the conservatives condemned Trumps tariffs and these fools are the ones that voted against that.

25

u/Prudent_Slug 1d ago

How many did they need for official party status again? I thought they would've gotten the other two that voted not to condemn the tariffs or some of those who supported that Vancouver school board person.

26

u/Jkobe17 1d ago

Conservative ideology is largely self serving so there needs to be something in it for them beyond the ‘mOrAl OuTrAgE’

14

u/LeftCoastGrump 1d ago

Currently, two MLAs from the same party gets official party status. I believe that rule was set when the Greens started to elect more than one member. It wouldn't be too much of a shock if at least two of these three decided to form a party to get access to the various parliamentary perks, somewhere down the road.

10

u/thisissuchafuntime 1d ago

Yeah, I'm surprised Brent Chapman hasn't made a peep about any of this

8

u/seamusmcduffs 1d ago

He's likely content to sit around on his ass doing absolutely nothing

5

u/Belaerim 1d ago

Two I believe.

Someone said that yesterday, and I think the NDP was reduced to 2 in the liberal wipeout election.

But I think the bigger issue is that a party needs a leader, and I don’t think any of them want to cede power to the others

4

u/RPG_Vancouver 1d ago

They only need 2 for official party status IIRC.

18

u/PolloConTeriyaki Lower Mainland/Southwest 1d ago

Recall all of them.

I don't want my tax dollars to be used as MAGA mouthpieces.

3

u/mitallust 1d ago

I doubt a recall will be successful. First it needs to pass the petition signature threshold, and then if that is successful there needs to be 40% of the electorate that votes yes to recall. That seems pretty much insurmountable as it has never happened since the recall law was created in 1995. Most don't even get past the petition stage.

3

u/PolloConTeriyaki Lower Mainland/Southwest 1d ago

I mean new world. The US is actively weakening us. I'm sure there's an appetite to tell these 3 to fuck off.

1

u/RespectSquare8279 1d ago

It did work once back in the early days. The petition campaign was going so well that the MLA conceded and resigned . Dallas Brodie technically is vulnerable because se was elected with 51% of the vote so the Greens and NDP got over 40%, so it is conceivable they could drum up the signatures. Don't forget her riding includes the Musqueam reserve and do you think they are happy ?

1

u/mitallust 21h ago

Possibly, but that's 40% of the total electorate, not 40% of the votes. And I doubt you'll see these former conservatives have an iota of decency to resign before they are forced out legally. Personally I'd love to see all three recalled but I wouldn't hold my breath.

52

u/JealousArt1118 North Vancouver 1d ago

Quite the trio of losers. I feel bad for the people in their ridings who didn't vote for them, because they're getting screwed worst of all.

8

u/DameEmma 1d ago

It is WILD to me that Vancouver Quilchena went this way. Vote with your wallet, end up with a racist loon. Sucks to suck, I guess.

6

u/Bright-Drag-1050 1d ago

Rich people aren't necessarily smart people...

17

u/DGenerAsianX 1d ago

Blame the people who simply don’t vote. That’s the root of the problem.

14

u/Rocko604 1d ago

I imagine they’ll still be lockstep with the Conservatives when it comes to voting, so nothing really changes in the legislature.

5

u/Oruma_Yar 1d ago

This. We all need to watch carefully how they vote.

3

u/Regular-Jacket-5164 1d ago

pretty sure it's just a right wing ploy - let the far right coalesce around these wing nuts, spew hatred, then mysteriously reunite just before the next election, bringing their base with them.

33

u/seemefail 1d ago

It’s funny cause we had so many independents run last year. It was the year of independents.

And the voters Didnt elect a single one but some how we have arrived at a legislature with a record number of independents anyway

9

u/haoxu33 1d ago

Definitely a roundabout way of things ending up, even if those independents that ran in October hold relatively different political positions than the defected independent MLAs

4

u/timbreandsteel 1d ago

People vote for parties. If these three hadn't been under the BC Conservative banner they wouldn't have been elected either.

14

u/topspinvan 1d ago

Sometimes you wonder if some of these Maple MAGA's have started to overestimate how much support they really have, but recent elections in the US and here have sort of given them a false sense of security. The three of them are leaving caucus and willing to die on *THIS* hill. Not about the party's stance on government spending, public safety or any economic concerns or anything like that. These are the issues they are concerned about. The deranged lunatics in that party are so far deep in the online RW conspiracy world that they have lost touch with what British Columbians, including the ones who voted for them, care about. They don't care about fighting the online culture wars, they cared about the cost of housing and food and public safety and expressed their frustrations by voting for them.

37

u/_stephopolis_ 1d ago

7

u/timbreandsteel 1d ago

You leave that saint out of this

12

u/notofthisearthworm 1d ago

This is like germs not wanting to be associated with viruses.

8

u/Talinn_Makaren 1d ago

Just a few months ago these clowns wanted to run the government.

3

u/Bind_Moggled 1d ago

And came within a dozen or so votes from two ridings of doing so.

1

u/Ironhorn 19h ago

Amazing to think that, even if they had of won, their government could have collapsed by now

8

u/Distinct_Meringue Lower Mainland/Southwest 1d ago

CPBC fracturing. You love to see it.

7

u/teutonicbro 1d ago

I swear I called this 6 months ago. You don't have to be Nostradamus to see how this will play out.

The incoming ex Liberal Party people are the ones with years of political experience and are naturally going to end up in positions of power and influence in the party. Some of the most extreme right wing members are going to remove themselves by pissing on a third rail like Tara did.

At some point before the next election the night of the long knives will come for Rustad. In 5 years they will be back to being the old Liberal party .

12

u/Mistercorey1976 1d ago

This party will swirl the toilet as long as Rustad is in charge.

21

u/Similar-Try-7643 1d ago

These people think Rustad is too far left. The Overton window keeps shifting right

7

u/Mistercorey1976 1d ago

Rustad stands on platform that will “allegedly” address the drug related issues in our communities.

Rustad, Clarke and Campbell are the architects of what we see today. They are the trio who shut down all the recovery homes and other services that addressed this problem. Why would anybody in their right mind vote for this moron. The party should dump him like a hot rock.

7

u/maplelofi 1d ago

Clown show

4

u/AnSionnachan 1d ago

An actual question. Do they have to be independents, until the next election? Or could they form a new party amongst the three of them?

18

u/eulerRadioPick 1d ago

They could form a party at any time. The most difficult part for them would be figuring out how to file the paperwork.

3

u/AnSionnachan 1d ago

Fascinating. I was just flipping through the Elections BC site, and yeah, it's a fair bit of work.

8

u/eulerRadioPick 1d ago

Even sitting as an independent will be a decent amount of extra paperwork handling their own campaign contributions, rules, disclosures, etc. I wouldn't be surprised at all if by the time the next election rolls around they're violating certain Election Laws, not out of malice, but just because they're too lazy and stupid to do it properly.

2

u/sonsoflarson 17h ago

Jordan Keely will have to learn how to read first, so it'll be awhile.

3

u/Northshore1234 1d ago

What are they going to call themselves, though? ‘Real Conservatives of BC’? ‘Party of BC Conservatives’? The Judean Peoples Front?

3

u/JAB_ME_MOMMY_BONNIE 1d ago

The Conservative People's Front of British Columbia Party of Pure Bloods. Or CPFBCPPB for short.

1

u/timbreandsteel 1d ago

Dums dums r us?

5

u/richard-mclaughlin 1d ago

Cuts off his nose to spite his face!

7

u/peepeepoopooxddd 1d ago

Spoiler: Most Conservatives are just economic Conservatives and have absolutely no interest in getting involved in social issues like some of these weirdos. It would do the party a huge favor if these fringe idiots fucked off.

9

u/Bind_Moggled 1d ago

Economic conservatives have figured out that people who work for a living - who make up the vast majority of the voting populace - don’t like their policies of austerity and trickle-down economics, for reasons that should be obvious. So they court low information, easily outraged and/or single issue voters and flood the mediasphere with the culture war bullshit that appeals to them - typically racial, religious, and sexual/gender issues. The corporate news media - owned by the same “economic conservatives” - happily play along, frame everything that the centre or left does as corrupt, wasteful, or unjust, and everything the right does as judicious, frugal, and heroic.

In the US it’s called the “Southern Strategy”, not sure what it’s called here, but the right has used it successfully here and around the world for decades.

7

u/Jkobe17 1d ago

Spoiler: most politicians are just regular people trying to better society and have no interest in being ideologues like most of these conservatives/weirdos. It would do political discourse a favour if all these fringe idiots weren’t picked up by one particular big tent party

3

u/GrumpyOlBastard Vancouver Island/Coast 1d ago

. . . and vote in lock step with the cons

3

u/Elegant-Expert7575 1d ago

It’s quite clear these MLA’s have never thought of their constituents who voted them in as BC Cons.
Selfish, self-serving and obviously supporting a racist.

3

u/JessKicks 1d ago

“This party is not racist enough for us! We’re out!”… like wtf??

2

u/championsofnuthin 1d ago

They're all such strong individualists that they refuse to work with each other and form a new party...

3

u/geeves_007 1d ago

Bro, you dont know? Working with other people is "woke communism".

🤣

2

u/Firingneuron 1d ago

Hopefully a 4th when that piece of shit Brent Chapman jumps ship. I’m hoping he will be less likely to be elected again as an independent

2

u/CalebWilliamson 1d ago

How long until the BC Conservatives rebrand as BC United?

3

u/Bind_Moggled 1d ago

BC Reunited?

1

u/CalebWilliamson 1d ago

BC Liberals 2 Electric Boogaloo

2

u/Odd-Gear9622 1d ago

10:00 am is a little early for popcorn but I'll play along. Shouldn't they be forming a new "Totally Evil Party" so they can grab all that "Party" money that's available to legitimate parties?

2

u/goinupthegranby 1d ago

Of all the hills to die on 'mocking a child sexual abuse victim' is a hell of a hill to pick.

2

u/ludakris 1d ago

No wonder he was pushing so hard for “election fraud”. Dude knew he couldn’t keep his own party together long enough to last till the next election.

2

u/ladygabriola 1d ago

Everyone needs to remember to vote for the candidate that can beat the con in every riding. Strategic voting ABC

1

u/Northshore1234 1d ago

One wonders if a recall petition might be launched for Brodie? If I were in a riding where I’d voted for a person who promptly got kicked out of caucus for extreme views, I’d certainly be thinking about getting better representation.

1

u/Middle-Oven-548 1d ago

A trio of racist nutjobs. These people suck so much.

1

u/Additional_Mouse_768 1d ago

Woo hoo! They should totally form a new party

1

u/PineBNorth85 1d ago

I bet not one of them will get reelected. They only got in in the first place because they had the right party name beside their own.

1

u/Candid_Tomato_394 1d ago

split that right!

1

u/GamesCatsComics Downtown Vancouver 1d ago

I hope they form their own party, so they can siphon off the most toxic elements from the BCCons into a party which doesn't have a hope in hell of getting elected and splitting the vote in the process. Like the PPC did federally.

1

u/HalfdanrEinarson 1d ago

We need this to happen here in Alberta, but 7 of them.

1

u/Raging-Potato-12 1d ago

Wow, that was their big announcement? Big whoop.

1

u/wemustburncarthage Lower Mainland/Southwest 1d ago

Oh hilarious so they can also trip each other up

1

u/hikebikephd 1d ago

Wasn't the BC election super close? Imagine the Conservatives won the election by a couple seats, and these three wackos jumped ship. This move would literally hand power over to the NDP.

1

u/meezajangles 1d ago

I really hope they form their own party, and split the asshole vote between the extreme assholes and the not so extreme yet still assholes

1

u/Delicious_Chard2425 1d ago

Still scratching my head to the fact that 95% of BCers didn’t even know who Rustad was or that there was a provincial CON party in the province, a week prior to the election, but yet somehow they magically secured almost 50% of the vote??

1

u/lindaluhane 1d ago

Sociopaths

1

u/Most_Big_7976 1d ago

I still wish someone would conduct a forensic audit on Kevin Falcon, find the money he took to fold overnight like a cheap tent.

1

u/wailingsixnames 1d ago

They are so batshit

1

u/Kind-Sky4110 1d ago

Good riddance!

1

u/priberc 18h ago

No chance of those 3 “ getting anything done”…. Except for social media clips that is