BRIAN: The BC Conservatives need to wake up

Paul Rowan Brian is a freelance journalist focused on politics, religion, and world affairs. He has reported from around the world including Europe, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and Brazil.BC's conservative party is in rough shape following MLA Dallas Brodie's ouster over her comments on residential schools and the ensuing swift departure of fellow MLAs Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy. The drama has raised serious questions about John Rustad's future as leader and the possibility of the True Blue Trio forming their own breakaway party. For her part, Armstrong says she no longer recognizes the BC Conservatives under Rustad, echoing the alienation felt by much of the grassroots conservative base in the north and interior of British Columbia.Armstrong, Brodie, and Kealy have made their positions clear: the party has been taken over by "woke liberals" and real conservatives have no home in it anymore. Kealy suggested the BC Conservatives have created a "toxic environment" for anyone who doesn't pay lip service to liberal orthodoxy.Let's face it; a real rift was bound to form sooner or later. In this case, the breaking point came over the Kamloops Residential School, where in 2021 Justin Trudeau and other liberals alleged that a mass grave containing the bodies of 215 children was located. Brodie disputed that claim last month, arguing that there have been no confirmed bodies at the site. She mocked her opponents during a recent podcast appearance, and was subsequently condemned by BC's NDP Premier David Eby and booted from the Conservative caucus by Rustad. As Jonathan Kay remarked in The Critic, "the media got the story completely wrong, generating the worst fake news in Canadian history." More than 30 churches were burned across the country following the media furor.Brodie says her former party had already begun to go woke long before this current crisis, ruling out candidates who weren't in line with milquetoast centrist, liberal-leaning views.She noted that tensions quickly became apparent in caucus meetings, and made it clear she will help more defectors leave the party if they wish. While BC United under Kevin Falcon threw in the towel last year to avoid splitting the centre-right vote, the formation of a new, real right-wing alternative led by the True Blue Trio seems to be in the offing. Is Rustad really the man to lead a potential BC Conservative government in four years, the first since the 1941 to 1952 coalition? A growing chorus says no, and it's worth noting that the rebel MLAs were joined in their Monday press conference by former Conservative candidate Paul Ratchford and former head of Conservative caucus research Tim Thielmann. MLA Brent Chapman of Surrey South and Rosalyn Bird of Prince George-Valemount are already wavering in their support of Rustad as well. Direct challenges to Rustad are likely to come up this fall at the leadership review.This brouhaha brings up the same age-old question: how far left should a right-wing party go in order to win votes in a progressive media and political environment? Recent signs show considerable success in doing the opposite, bucking the trend by going further right instead of caving to real and perceived pressure. The shameful legacy of the BC residential schools and the abuses and murders that occurred there arguably do amount to "cultural genocide," but is it wrong to dispute unfounded incitement by powerful politicians over mass graves that led to churches being burned en masse? Not at all. Furthermore, if the right gets just as much into speech-policing and subjective truth as the left, then it loses any alternative appeal it could have for voters who are tired of living in Woke-istan. Imagine being crazy enough to believe a conservative party in BC should actually be … conservative? As William F. Buckley memorably said, "liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views." Well, the fact is that plenty of British Columbians voted Conservative and want right-leaning politicians as their representatives because — surprise, surprise — they're not leftists or liberals. The BC Conservatives have strayed far from any conservative core they once had. The capture of the party to become a lapdog to leftist Premier David Eby is a disappointing but predictable outcome in BC's political climate. For now, Armstrong, Brodie and Kealy will sit as Independents — but that could change. Starting a new party isn't easy, and getting real political power is even harder, but anything is possible, and at the very least this drama has shown that the BC Conservatives won't be able to act as eager censors for the Liberals and NDP without consequences. The hope now is that the current shakeup and rebellion by the True Blue Trio can change things and provide a real alternative to the leftist lethargy that grips the province.Paul Rowan Brian is a freelance journalist focused on politics, religion, and world affairs. He has reported from around the world including Europe, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and Brazil.

BRIAN: The BC Conservatives need to wake up

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