Close X
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
ADVT 
National

John Rustad shares his B.C. Conservative origin story, in postelection message

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 22 Oct, 2024 09:36 AM
  • John Rustad shares his B.C. Conservative origin story, in postelection message

John Rustad has taken to social media to describe his origin story as leader of British Columbia's Conservative Party, which he took from obscurity to the brink of power in Saturday's provincial election.

The Conservatives went from taking less than two per cent of the vote in 2020 to being elected or leading in 45 ridings, two short of a majority and only one behind Premier David Eby's New Democrats.

Rustad has shared a photo on social media platform X showing himself sharing a pint with staffer Azim Jiwani and the Conservatives' executive director, Angelo Isidorou, at a pub in Vancouver. 

He says the trio gathered two years ago, after the B.C. Liberal Party kicked him out on his birthday in August 2022 over his support for a climate change skeptic.

He says he considered retiring, but his wife, Kim, convinced him to stay in politics and his friend Jiwani suggested a meeting with Isidorou.

Rustad says they "shared a pint of Guinness" and discussed breathing life into a new party that would give "grassroots voters a new option for genuine change."

The result of the election won't be known until at least next week, with manual recounts taking place in two ridings where the NDP holds a narrow lead, and with 49,000 absentee and mail-in ballots yet to be counted.

The counting that Elections BC says will take place from Oct. 26 to 28 will also help determine what role the two elected Greens will play, with their support essential for any minority government. 

Rustad says the party's "work is just getting started," and his post thanks more than 800,000 people who voted Conservative.

The Nechako Lakes MLA sat briefly as an Independent after being ejected by the Liberals, then joined the B.C. Conservatives and was acclaimed leader in March 2023.

MORE National ARTICLES

8 Sikh men arrested for firearm-related offences in Canada

8 Sikh men arrested for firearm-related offences in Canada
Police have arrested eight Sikh men between 19 to 26 years of age and charged them in connection with possession of loaded, prohibited or restricted firearms in the Canadian city of Brampton. Officers from the Peel Regional Police responded to reports of shots fired in the area of Donald Stewart Road and Brisdale Drive in Brampton at 10.25 p.m. on Monday.  

8 Sikh men arrested for firearm-related offences in Canada

Canada-India dispute likely target for disinformation efforts, State Department warns

Canada-India dispute likely target for disinformation efforts, State Department warns
A senior State Department official says Canada's dispute with India could make for fertile ground for foreign efforts to sow disinformation. James Rubin, the co-ordinator of the Global Engagement Center, says the diplomatic standoff makes Canada "ripe" for manipulation, and not just from inside India.

Canada-India dispute likely target for disinformation efforts, State Department warns

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber
A man who held up a bank in Kelowna and fled with more than 40-thousand-dollars in cash has been sentenced to four years in prison. Alan Stuart Metcalfe was sentenced in August after pleading guilty to one count of robbery, and the decision was released online this week.  

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

Series of fires outside Mission

Series of fires outside Mission
The Mounties say police and firefighters responded Wednesday evening to a report of a structure fire on a vacant property along Gunn Avenue and found several buildings on fire, with indications that the blazes had been set intentionally. They say police responded to flames on a different property along the same road yesterday and again found they appeared to have been sparked intentionally.

Series of fires outside Mission

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in British Columbia, with the BC Centre for Disease Control reporting hospitalizations have increased 58 per cent in the past two weeks. The centre says in its latest update that deaths due to COVID-19 are also trending upwards, with 24 fatalities in the last week of September, compared to nine in the second week of August. 

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count
The count by the Homelessness Services Association of B-C was done on March 7th and 8th -- and identified just under five thousand people in 11 communities, up from the roughly 36-hundred identified in the March 2020 count.

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count