EXCLUSIVE: Rustad won the battle — but he may lose the war

Just hours after it was revealed that John Rustad had survived his leadership review, he made a move that sent shockwaves across British Columbia — he kicked longtime MLA Elenore Sturko out of the BC Conservative caucus.Rustad claimed the decision came about due to "issues" between Sturko and the party that were "not reconcilable," but she quickly made it clear the reason she was ousted was not ideological at all, rather, a direct result of her demanding the truth about the review..Elenore Sturko booted from BC Conservative caucus over 'issues' that were 'not reconcilable'."What I was doing was going to other MLAs to voice my concerns and to try to make sure that we would have a caucus dialogue," Sturko told the Western Standard, citing the fact that hundreds of fake memberships were discovered during the process. "Even if they have cancelled those memberships, the fact of the matter is that under the watch of John Rustad, these irregularities took place, and he wasn't forthcoming with caucus about that information."She pointed out that "we're talking about a situation where at one point in time there were more manufactured fake memberships than people that actually voted in the overall leadership."A total of 2,238 memberships were found to have been "manufactured" between July 15 and August 30, with 1,800 of the sign-ups occurring on August 28 and 29. Of the 2,238 memberships — many of which used South Asian names — 567 "originated from sources outside Canada" and 78.2% were created via "identified VPN addresses. Nearly all of them, 96%, were bought using three credit cards, which is a violation of Section 186(1)(d) of the Election Act."He came out yesterday with this graphic and statement saying he has this new mandate and what a strong mandate he has," Sturko continued, "but it's something like 16% or less, maybe 13%, of people that came out to even vote in the entire thing.".A source familiar with the matter told the Western Standard that it appears as though there's more to the story than fake memberships being cancelled."With at least several hundred — there's no certainty on how many — of the fake memberships that were cancelled, the cancelling occurred after quite a few of them may have already voted," they said under the condition of anonymity," and because it's the secret ballot, if you cancel a membership after it's voted, you don't know which ballot it is — you can't actually pull the ballots out.".Rustad passes BC Conservative leadership review.They went on to explain that if 300 "yes" ballots were filled out by people with fake memberships, and those were removed from Rustad's total, it would bring him down to around 600, which is only half of the total number who voted."That's the margin of victory right there," they said. "So they told everyone that they'd cancel that's what they didn't mention is that the cancellation occurred after large numbers ... would've or could've voted."Documents show that a single Langley-based IP address signed up 191 members in the riding of Richmond-Queensborough alone between July 15 and August 7. The vote took place on August 7, and it wasn't until September 10 that the fake memberships were finally cancelled."Elenore was raising legitimate issues about the process that I think Russ that didn't want to talk about," the source continued. "I know there are ideological divisions within the party, but I'm not sure that actually plays as much of a role in the short run in this decision.".Sturko echoed those sentiments, noting that while there has been some butting of heads in caucus, the goal always appeared be to maintain a "big tent" free enterprise coalition where social conservatives and fiscal conservatives could coexist in peace.She noted, however, that Rustad forgot to mention that to certain members of the party."He didn't say that to people like Dallas [Brodie] or others," Sturko said. "He actually told them the opposite, which is that he would never sell out his values, and so when you start from a place of deceit, I'm not sure if he just didn't think we would ever come in the room together or."She admitted that her sexuality did come up every once in a while among some in BC's conservative movement..Rustad meets with ousted VPB co-chair to show support while Sturko refuses to apologize for targeting her over posts."I think that for some people, the idea that they would have a social liberal or work with a lesbian — I'm just going to say it — was something that they didn't think that, you know ... I often heard you couldn't be a true conservative because you're gay," Sturko lamented.She reminded her detractors that she's been a staunch fiscal conservative and "one of the strongest critics on drug policy, a strong law and order critic and advocate for tough policies."Sturko vowed to keep holding the BC NDP to account in her new position as an Independent MLA.When asked about Rustad's future as head of the party, she made it clear she doesn't see how he can keep going on his current path."Getting rid of me probably buys John some time and buys him some support from very socially conservative people," Sturko said. "In the long run, the the root cause of John Rustad's leadership problems is John Rustad."

EXCLUSIVE: Rustad won the battle — but he may lose the war

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