Conservative leader on the defensive in first BC leaders’ debate of the election

The leader of British Columbia’s Conservatives spent much of the first debate between premier hopefuls defending, or deflecting from, controversial comments that he and his party’s other candidates have made on issues such as vaccines, climate change and gun control.
At Wednesday’s hour-long debate on radio station CKNW – one of two ahead of the Oct. 19 election – the leaders of the provincial NDP, Conservative and Green parties sparred over affordability, the carbon tax and health care, among other topics.
But NDP Leader David Eby also used the opportunity to challenge Conservative Leader John Rustad on the views espoused by some within his party, at one point placing in front of him a printout of a social-media post from one of his candidates.
Chris Sankey, the Conservative candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii, last October shared a post on X that falsely claimed that 74 per cent of people who received three shots of the COVID-19 vaccine now have AIDS. “No Canadian should tolerate this,” he wrote.
Mr. Rustad pushed away the printout and did not address Mr. Sankey’s post. Instead, he responded by criticizing the vaccine requirements that led to about 2,500 health care workers, or just more than 1 per cent in the province, being fired for refusing to be immunized.
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“When you can’t even bring yourself to say that that’s problematic and you don’t agree with that, then how are you going to run a health care system?” said Mr. Eby, calling some of the Conservative candidates’ views “bizarre in a way that compromises safety.”
Mr. Sankey did not respond to requests for comment from The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, but posted nearly 1,200 words on Facebook after the debate, laying out his goals if elected and responding to the “blatant personal attacks that are outright dangerous.”
A user responded to that post by asking how anyone is supposed to take him seriously, to which he replied that he was only amplifying a report – which was from a fake news website – about a syndrome he had never heard of before then.
“Its unfortunate that you are repeating a lie that David Eby stated,” Mr. Sankey wrote on Facebook. “I am only going to say this once. I never said that. It was a report that came out. I merely shared it.”
On the carbon price, debate moderator Mike Smyth asked Green Leader Sonia Furstenau about her party being the only one to stand by it despite rising unaffordability. She replied that, when implemented properly, that money is returned to families as a credit. Mr. Rustad accused Mr. Eby of flip-flopping on the issue, while Mr. Eby accused Mr. Rustad of not believing climate science.
The Conservative Leader replied that “climate change is real,” but that the real crisis in the province is affordability.
“Saying climate change is real and scaling up fossil fuel infrastructure is a circle I’d like to see squared,” Ms. Furstenau responded.
On the topic of crime and public safety, Mr. Eby noted that Mr. Rustad told a reporter last week that he would instruct police in the province not to enforce federal gun laws. In response, Mr. Rustad blamed the NDP Leader for weak policing that has allowed guns to enter the province and, when pressed by the moderator, said he would not allow funding for law enforcement to be spent on going after law-abiding gun owners.
On Indigenous relations, Mr. Smyth asked Mr. Rustad why he has pledged to repeal the provincial Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act after voting in favour of it in 2019. The leader replied that “what is currently happening is actually causing friction between people,” and said that what is needed is “economic reconciliation” by way of signing business deals with individual First Nations.
Mr. Eby criticized Mr. Rustad for announcing the plan on Monday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and said some of the province’s most successful economic projects are partnerships with Indigenous groups. Ms. Furstenau agreed with the NDP Leader and noted that the courts have repeatedly affirmed Aboriginal title.
“If you’re fighting against the inherent rights and titles that the courts have declared are there, you’re going to spend a lot of taxpayer money to go into court and fight a battle that you’re going to lose,” she said.
On affordability, Mr. Eby said his party’s promise of a tax cut for the middle class, starting with a $1,000 cheque for most British Columbian households next year, would provide immediate relief. He criticized Mr. Rustad’s proposed tax credit for renters and homeowners, which would begin by exempting $1,500 a month in 2026, scaling up to $3,000 a month in 2029.
The Conservative Leader said the gradual increase is necessary given the fiscal mismanagement under the NDP that has led to a projected $9-billion deficit.
After the debate, the three leaders appeared at an event held by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. The association provided results of a survey of businesses and Metro Vancouver residents that identified housing, affordability and crime and public safety among the region’s most pressing concerns.
With a report from Mike Hager