BC Conservative leader John Rustad has admitted he ordered his caucus leadership to search MLAs’ phones to determine if one of them was leaking information.“Somebody had read out something that was on social media, and everybody expressed concern... this has got to stop,” Rustad told the media at the BC Legislature on Thursday.He then suggested dealing with the situation by having everyone bring out their phones to be checked, which he claimed the vast majority of his caucus agreed with.“Not every single MLA expressed interest, but the vast majority said, ‘Yes, let’s do this, let’s look at this now,’” Rustad said, confirming no one was found to have leaked any information after the check.“We expect discipline in the caucus,” Rustad said.“We expect people to be part of our team and to be able to move forward, and if anybody’s working against that, then we have a series of disciplinary actions that we will be taking.”.Rustad walks back comments suggesting some of his own MLAs ‘don’t believe in democracy’.This latest incident is just one in an ever-growing list of political troubles Rustad has faced in recent weeks.Rumours of discontent within his own caucus have persisted despite Rustad surviving a recent leadership review, which involved voting by rank-and-file party members across the province.He expelled MLA Elenore Sturko from the Conservative caucus, accusing her of organizing against him just hours after the review was complete.Earlier this week, he told CBC Radio that some members of his caucus “may not believe in democracy” when explaining why he took the step of muzzling his MLAs during a contested vote that would have exposed the divides within his caucus after he had promised them free votes.
