BC United isn’t dead, despite ending its campaign, Conservative leader says | Power & Politics

it's a major shakeup in BC politics BC United has dropped out of the election with just 51 days to go their leader throwing his support behind the BC conservatives I made the decision uh that I made as leader of BC United to suspend our campaign I will be withdrawing our candidate uh nominations and uh in cooperation with John rustad we will work together to uh assemble the best possible team of mlas and candidates that can serve the best interests of British Colombians BC United used to be called the BC liberals governing uninterrupted for 16 years until the NDP ended their reign the party rebranded last year and sank in the polls below the surgeon conservatives John rustat is the leader of the BC conservatives sir you didn't merge with BC United did they fold no so what they did is they suspended their campaign and by doing that um they've made a commitment that they will not be running candidates in the next election but I I I I don't mean it in the technical sense I'm I'm asking about the question of what happened here I mean Kevin Falcon kicked you out of his caucus two years ago right around your birthday if I understand correctly you are the one who has come out on top here how do you explain that well yes it was on my birthday um and uh I mean ultimately what it boils down to is people in British Columbia are very upset with what has been happening in this province um there is a crisis in everything whether it is health care or housing uh affordability whether it's the drugs and crime our our resource sector even our finance sector is in is in crisis with the debt downgrades and I think people are just looking for for change they want Common Sense change in British Columbia and and we've tapped into that and providing them with that option that doesn't explain to me though what happened between you and Kevin Falcon your party and the the United uh BC United well I think you know part of it is um the reason why I I say that is because when people want change it's been 33 years since 1991 16 years of BC liberal and 17 years of NDP and they've all led to the situation that is here today and so people were just wanting change and you know I didn't spend a lot of time attacking BC United I've kept all my focus on on the NDP and that I mean ultimately people just put a lot of pressure on them and said you know really you need to do the right thing on behalf of the province we need to stop David eie and the the very destructive policies that he has in British Columbia come together and so uh Kevin came to the conclusion that that was the right thing to do and I thank him very much for it he he had a lot of things to say about your party uh suggesting you're a lot of conspiracy theorists did you have to swallow some pride in order to reach this point uh no I mean we're not changing anything about who we are as a party we're carrying forward with our policies and our approach uh to how we will govern in British Columbia and how we want to bring about that Common Sense change and so there was wasn't a need to be doing that we've committed to a process uh that uh between the two parties to do a review uh of candidates and with the with the with the eye that there may be some other candidates some other mlas as well that could potentially run under a conservative Banner should they chose to do that the BC liberals were I don't have to tell you a Powerhouse uh a dynasty some would say in your Province for years you were a part of that party are the BC liberals Dead uh no I wouldn't say that uh so look British Columbia politics is quite interesting I mean the conservative party of British Columbia is the oldest party in BC's history it was first founded in 1903 and it governed for many years but the last time it actually formed a government was 1927 and then it shifted over to the BC liberals for almost two decades from there it went into the social credit party which governed for uh for the most part of of close to 40 years and so and then it switched back to you know went to the NDP for two terms and we switched back to BC liberals and we're seeing now another shift and shifting from the BC liberals to um to the conservative party so um you know I I don't think it their party is dead but you know could be some time before a party like that has a chance to rise and like I say as the conservative party BC we're trying to say it's not about being conservative liberal or NDP or green it's just standing for what's right and fighting for the average everyday person it says on your party's website that you're not affiliated with any federal party now that you are the right of Center option will you be trying to build ties with Pier pv's conserv conservatives uh we have ties with them already uh there's certain many people that's working on our campaign that are working on Pierre's campaign uh there are many things that in common between the two parties for example we want to get rid of the carbon tax we want to end the drug D we want to make sure that parents have rights there are many things that um uh you we have in common there are some things that are different there's some things that quite frankly we may be at odds on but having said that um to bring about the real change that's needed to bring about that Common Sense change we're going to need not only change in comp we are going to need change in AWA as well were any federal conservatives involved in this uh not merger between yourselves and BC United um no uh there wasn't uh there was some I mean there's a lot of people I think that had been talking to Kevin Falcon there were some people that had been talking to me as well and obviously you know we kept the door open all the way along to being able to have these conversations and on Sunday um one of the people from BC United reached out and wanted to meet with our um our executive director so that uh meeting took place on Sunday there was a follow-up meeting on Tuesday and then um uh from that meeting there was a decision that it would be good for Kevin and I to meet for the first time since uh uh since I was part of his caucus so we arranged to do that at 9:00 on Tuesday night um and came to the conclusion that this was the right thing to do and it came to a framework that could work and so we made that announcement then on Wednesday uh you touched on earlier the question of what is going to happen with candidates and you said during the news conference yesterday that you're still some of this is still being sorted out but I I'm sure uh you are getting a lot of messages or hearing a lot of feedback from people who want you to figure this out quickly so help me understand are some people who are currently BC conservative candidates at risk of being replaced by people from BC United there's a lot of variables that need to be worked through uh We've committed to putting together a group between the two parties uh that are going to be reviewing a lot of information that are going to be reviewing the candidates going to be reviewing background uh and having a look to see uh how we can collectively make sure that we've got the best team possible out on the field uh as well of course you know there's people that may decide they don't want to be part of running for a conservative U uh party and so we'll have to have those conversations but my goal is to try to have them as quickly as possible because obviously there's a lot of people that are being affected uh and uncertain about the future and we want to be able to bring that certainty as quick as we can after all we're only 52 days out from an election you were you were prodded about this question quite a lot yesterday and didn't seem to want to say yes but if I look at the plain meaning of your words we'll see that suggests that it is up for discussion that that some people who are currently uh nominated candidates might have to step aside my hope is that we're going to be able to find ways to be able to accommodate U people uh with various options we'll see what that looks like I I can't make any decisions at this point there's obviously a lot of work that needs to be done one of your candidates was criticized for promoting the idea that 5G cell phone towers are genocidal weapons and the cause of the covid-19 pandemic you're smiling as I say it because you've been asked about this a lot but the game has changed now before you were saying well listen I'm not interested in in cancel culture you are reassessing candidates now will that candidate state does that candidate represent what the BC conservative party moving forward is all about you know sharing information is different from uh uh from having beliefs or thoughts about information but regardless of that there is the process that we are going to go through and uh at this Point uh you know we don't have uh any preconceived notions about that we've had some discussions with the uh between the two parties about what it could look like and who could potentially uh fit in as being part of organization but there's a lot of conversations that need to be had and including conversations with the potential candidates so there's a lot of work to be done U but I'm not anticipating there's going to be significant changes uh but uh you know we'll have to see how that plays out should British Colombians expect that there will be any changes on where you stand because of this agreement I mean I heard you talking about your values yesterday but you are trying to incorporate um a new group of supporters in it is there any shift that we would expect to see this close to election day um I'm not anticipating any shift in terms of uh the values that we have and the things that are principles that have been driving us people want this Common Sense change in British Columbia and uh that's what we're going to deliver and we're not going to compromise on on who we are as a party that's one of the key things that I think as the conservative parties that has attracted so many people other political parties are interested in um trying to figure out where the public is and then adjusting their policies they don't really stand on principles they do have tremendous amounts of ideology that drive uh what they do uh we're just putting out who we are we're putting out saying this is what we think we need to do this is the province that we want to be able to build uh we want people to be able proud to call themselves British Columbus to be able to build a future here and that Common Sense change is I think you know what's attracting so many people to be part of our party the reason that you were ejected from the BC United caucus was for comments around climate change for boosting comments suggesting we should celebrate carbon dioxide suggesting people are being Hoodwinked by climate science is the fact that you are now the leader of the right of Center party in BC a victory for that view of climate science you know it's interesting so I was kicked out because um there was a u uh a paper that was put forward by the federal government that would significantly reduce the use of nitrogen based fertilizers yes and stop cows from farting in beling because somehow that was changing the weather and so I wanted to be able to talk about that I shared a a tweet that uh uh had some information uh about questioning the role of CO2 and of course talked about a little bit about the Great Barrier Reef um I decided I did not want to take that tweet down because this is a conversation that we need to have I first and foremost represent my riding making sure that I fight on behalf of my riding which is something I expect all my candidates to be able to do um I was because I refused to take that down I was kicked out and so that's fine I mean those were decisions at the time that the BC liberals had decided want to do our position on climate is is very straightforward um we're going to be removing the carbon tax we think that trying trying to tax people into poverty is not going to change the weather that seems to be the belief of the current Premier in British Columbia um but we also believe strongly that climate change is real and we need to be able to adapt to it there are lots of things we need to do in agriculture there's a ton of things we need to do with power production but most importantly we need to have honest conversations with the public about what that means and what we need to be able to do in British Columbia so that people can have the quality of life and be able to raise their children here in British Columbia you say you believe climate change is real but some of the contention has been around whether you accept certainly in the past whether you accept that it is human caused and whether or not you accept that there is a climate crisis as groups like The United Nations the World Meteorological organization say uh a 2021 review of the peer-reviewed science on climate change concluded that 99.9 % of studies agree that climate change is hum driven do you think being offside with the scientific consensus around this if you're saying it's not a crisis if you're uh not accepting Clarity on whether it's human cause that that could hurt you with voters so look the most important thing in British Columbia is that one in three people are thinking about leaving this province one and two youth are think about leaving this province because they don't see how they can build a future here I want to be very la are focused on making sure that we do everything we can so people can have a quality of life here that people can build a future here and people can be proud again of being in British Columbia and so when I see policies that come forward that hurt that that are intentionally creating uh struggling uh creating uh struggles for people in British Columbia I think that is just wrong we need to be able to have common sense approaches in British Columbia and that includes how we address climate but that sir you're talking about how to address the problem and I'm talking about the diagnostic of what the problem is and it sounds to me that based on your past comments you're not necessarily on side with the majority of scientific thinking about the nature of the problem itself whether or not it's a crisis um in my opinion it is not a crisis it is not an existential threat it is something that's real it's something we need to be able to address but the way to address it is not putting people into poverty and destroying our quality of life we need to be able to address U the changing climate but we also need to make sure that we stay focused on people being able to build a future here because if not they're just going to leave British Columbia and that certainly isn't the future that I believe people want to see in British Columbia okay we are out of time we're going to have to leave the conversation there I appreciate you making the time to speak with us today thank you sir thank you for having me on take care