There was no hiding the smile on BC Conservative Leader John Rustad’s face as he worked his way through a jammed community hall in mid-Vancouver Island on Saturday, his music booming and the crowd roaring.
“I am so pumped,” said Rustad, as the final notes of “Uprising” by Muse echoed through the Cobble Hill Farmers Institute Main Hall. “People are so interested in change. They’ve had enough of what’s going on in this province.”
Rustad looked, and sounded like, a politician on a roll. He was fresh off defeating the rival BC United party, and absorbing the centre-right vote. More than a few orphaned United faces were spotted in the 200-plus crowd, kicking the tires of the lone surviving centre-right party.
He hit all the usual high notes in his speech — scrapping the carbon tax, SOGI, short-term rental restrictions, Dr. Bonnie Henry, decriminalization, safe supply and more.
But what was just as interesting was the careful course Rustad charted on questions about more sensitive issues, despite the boisterous crowd urging him to do otherwise.
One woman took to the microphone calling herself “an NDP defector” who was tired of “daughters who are having their breasts amputated in the name of identity” and “teenage girls being thrown in the trash heap.”
“John, here is my question for you, what is a woman?” she asked, playing up the crowd for applause.
“Thank you so much for your question,” replied Rustad, who then, in a crafty way that underscored his 20 years of political experience, pivoted his answer into the somewhat safer territory of gender neutral washrooms as well as his bill to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.
“Women and girls should have their own safe places, their own washrooms and change rooms,” he said.
And then he stopped.
“I didn’t quite answer the question, but I think I’ll leave it at that,” he concluded.
Another woman at the microphone asked him about abortion.
“If you could just clarify where you stand on it and what the party is doing or not doing around it,” she said.
“Let me start by saying this, children are a blessing,” replied Rustad, who outlined how he and his wife were unable to have children due to her cervical cancer.
“But when it comes to the issue abortion, this issue is federal. And as the Conservative Party of British Columbia, we're not going to reopen this debate.”
That was it. He received half-hearted applause. Some clearly wanted him to go further.
A third woman asked him if he’d get rid of electronic vote counting machines — a subject of great misinformation and inaccurate fraud claims in the United States by former U.S. president Donald Trump. British Columbia is using electronic tabulators of paper ballots in the upcoming election.
“I’d like to see Elections BC make sure there’s a 10 per cent random audit so that ballots are counted manually and compared to the numbers in randomly selected polls around the province, so that people can have confidence that what the machine is counting is the same as what is being counted physically,” said Rustad.
“I’d like to see it gone completely, but OK,” replied the woman. “My other question for you is are you interested in getting rid of the human rights tribunals? I think they are more trouble than they are worth. Every one I’ve seen come out has been a joke.”
Here too, Rustad was careful. “I appreciate that,” he said. “I actually apologize, I haven’t given any thought to that right now.”
Perhaps Rustad could sense the reporters in the room. Or maybe he’s received strategic counsel to stay on message and not give ammunition to the NDP war room six weeks before an election. Regardless, it was fascinating to watch his message discipline as he tiptoed through landmine questions.
That alone won’t insulate Rustad from criticism, though.
On abortion, New Democrats can still argue he is silent on issues within provincial control, such as availability and coverage for the abortion pill and procedures. And on gender neutral washrooms, he will be accused of dog whistling to larger homophobic and transphobic sentiments.
But the party leader is not giving his critics new ammunition with which to attack him as he criss-crosses the province holding these public events.
Perhaps even more importantly, he doesn’t come across as an out-of-control extremist bogeyman for potential voters who come out to see him speak in person for the first time.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
