The leak of a letter in which a group of BC Conservative MLAs targeted one of their own colleagues and challenged their leader is yet another reminder about the troubling immaturity plaguing the new opposition party.
The letter, from 13 elected Conservatives, demands Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko apologize for encouraging the resignation of Vancouver Police Board vice-chairwoman Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba last month.
Sakoma-Fadugba stepped down amid criticism over social media posts she’d made in which she said Diwali celebrations were “erasing Christian values from the lives of our children” and gender transitioning is part of a “woke culture that pits children against their parents.”
Sturko, the public safety critic, said the comments were offensive and undermined trust in police. The signatories argue Sakoma-Fadugba was simply expressing the values of many social conservatives.
The fallout has been messy, but is also potentially a learning experience — if the Conservatives want to learn and grow, that is.
One of the biggest lessons for the new 44-person caucus centres around the old adage that you should never write down what you wouldn’t want splashed on the front page of the newspaper. In politics, everything eventually leaks. The only question is whether your name is on the offending document.
In this case, the letter identified 13 MLAs, now dubbed the “cancel caucus.”
But it also embarrassed the entire Conservative team, because it shone sunlight on a deep rift within a party that almost half of B.C. voters put their trust behind.
Instead of getting down to work on their shadow cabinet portfolios, which they were given just three weeks ago, apparently almost one-third of the Conservative caucus has been engaged in this navel-gazing exercise about “cancel culture.”
Instead of speaking to the voter discontent on key issues that almost swept the party into power, these MLAs veered off to fight a fight on a small semi-municipal governance body that most members of the public don’t even know exists.
Signatories include folks like North Island MLA Anna Kindy, the party’s new health critic. Surely, after being given what is perhaps the single most important file in provincial politics today, encompassing half of government spending, she could find a better use of her time.
That aside, the leak of the letter puts Leader John Rustad’s back against the wall.
The dissidents demand either Sturko apologize to Sakoma-Fadugba or Rustad do it himself on behalf of the party. Sturko has refused, leaving news coverage focused on what it calls an early "test" of his leadership.
It’s really a no-win scenario. If Rustad apologizes, he emboldens a small radical group within his caucus and alienates Sturko, one of his top opposition critics. If he refuses, he risks a public standoff with 13 MLAs who are fighting to save face now that their letter has leaked publicly.
What’s ironic is that the letter was signed by several MLAs who owe their election to Rustad, and who otherwise appeared quite loyal. Folks like Surrey South’s Brent Chapman, who Rustad continued to back even as Chapman hid from the fallout of appalling comments he made about Muslims. Or, Vancouver-Quilchena’s Dallas Brodie, who Rustad refused to fire during the election after she made awful comments about First Nations needing to go to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and pick up all their members from the street.
Do they want Rustad to quit? Are they trying to undermine his authority? Are they looking to embarrass him? If so, have at it. But they should also know (especially those two) that any other leader would have thrown them to the wolves long ago.
The letter is also a cautionary tale for the many new Conservative staffers who’ve arrived at the building in recent days and still don’t even know where the washrooms are.
Caucus research director Tim Thielmann, a former party candidate, was fired for his role in the document. That, at least, sent a pretty clear message to political staff that their job is to support the work of elected MLAs, not pick sides in an internal civil war and run around drumming up signatures for one group against another.
All of this is set to come to a head Tuesday at an in-person BC Conservative caucus meeting. Which is probably where this dispute should have started and stopped in the first place. Are these just growing pains for a rookie caucus? Or is it perpetually amateur hour over there in the ranks of the BC Conservatives? What happens next will be telling.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
