BREAKING: Rustad resigns as Conservative Party of B.C. leader
Less than 24 hours after insisting he wasn’t leaving the party and that its members had no legal avenue to force him to resign, John Rustad has resigned as leader.
Less than 24 hours after insisting he wasn’t leaving the party and that its members had no legal avenue to force him to resign, John Rustad has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia.
It caps a chaotic and, at times, confusing week in B.C. politics.
Rumours of a caucus revolt surfaced on Monday. By Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to hold the fracturing party together, the B.C. Conservatives took part in rib-eating and gingerbread-house-building “team exercises.” The following morning, a letter signed by a majority of caucus members formally called on Rustad to resign — a demand he immediately rejected, even as the caucus moved ahead and appointed its own interim leader.
Under the Conservative Party of B.C.’s constitution and bylaws, a leader can only be removed through a vote of party members, resignation, incapacitation or death.
In response to his refusal to step down, some B.C. Conservatives even floated the idea of removing Rustad on the grounds that he was in a state of “professional incapacitation.”
But all of that shifted on Thursday morning, when Rustad signalled his resignation by quietly changing his X profile by replacing his title as “leader of the BC Conservatives” to “MLA for Nechako–Lakes.”
Rustads resignation was then announced via email, and posted on X after.
