On Friday morning the Conservative Party of British Columbia named MLA John Rustad as its new leader.
Rustad was booted from the BC Liberals seven months ago, the provinces main official opposition party.
Within one month of joining the party, MLA John Rustad has taken the lead of the BC Conservative replacing former leader Trevor Bolin.
“I want to thank the thousands of members of the Conservative Party of British Columbia. I appreciate the trust you’re putting in my leadership, and I promise you this — no one will outwork me,” said Rustad
Rustad was first elected in 2005 and “for the past 18 years, fighting for British Columbia has been my life”.
After Rustad’s departure from the BC Liberals he sat as an independent for six months before he joined the BC Conservative Party in February.
The MLA for Nechako-Lakes was ejected from the BC Liberals by the leader Kevin Falcon after saying the Rustad’s opinions don’t align with the party’s views.
“I do not plan to stay silent on the many issues that are just wrong,” he said at the time. “I plan to be vocal about them.
“It doesn’t serve the environment movement well, it doesn’t serve us as a province well.”
Rustad hopes that the BC Conservatives will be a “genuine grassroots movement” for positive change in the province’s political system.
“The Conservative Party is going to bring people together in every single region of British Columbia, and we are going to continue to build a genuine grassroots movement for positive change. Every single British Columbian voter will have the opportunity to tick a box that says ‘Conservative’ when they cast their vote in the next election,” said Rustad.
In what appears to be one of Rustads first videos to British Columbians as the new leader of the BC Conservative party he speaks about the harms of rapid tax increases especially carbon tax.
“People can’t afford this kind of increase [carbon tax]. People are struggling just to put gas in their tank and food on the table. to be able to take their kids to soccer. Just to be able to afford daily life.”
“We need to bring an end to these types of increases” Rustad said of the heavy tax burden on living.
The new BC Conservative leader MLA John Rustad says the people deserve a government that does what it’s supposed to, a government that makes its decisions around what the BC residents need for a better quality of life in the future.
“Stand with me and fight for a better British Columbia”
