Geoff Russ: The B.C. Conservatives need a true conservative leader

And so do British Columbians.

The Conservative Party of British Columbia will have a new leader, and interlopers will try to tell the base who should lead it.

Neither the party nor B.C. needs another suit who will pledge the old slogans of “competent management,” or the classic “safe pair of hands.” It will not do, for the challenges and crises now endangering the future of the province require more than that.

B.C. needs generational conservative leadership, nothing less, and certainly not a mushy manager who thinks a return to the good old days is imminent.

That mushiness once existed in B.C., and it was called the B.C. Liberals in the second half of their long run of political dominance, which lasted from 2001 to 2017. It lived off the fumes of an older Canadian social peace and cohesion that was grandfathered into the 21st century.

Even defenders of the old B.C. Liberal “free enterprise coalition” will admit that it ignored the simmering and sweeping cultural conflicts that broke open in the 2010s and have reshaped our home.

The final nail in the coffin of that buried, extinct coalition was the suspension of the B.C. United (formerly B.C. Liberal) campaign in August 2024, which ceded right-of-centre politics to the ascendant provincial Conservatives. That suspension was a funeral, and it should not be mistaken for a tactical retreat that will be redeemed by a restoration of the “free enterprise coalition.”

To set the record straight, there is no question that B.C. urgently needs an economic turnaround. Sawmill jobs are disappearing outside of the cities, with permanent shutdowns in places like Domtar’s Crofton mill, which put 350 people out of work.

The decline is extending to the mining and minerals industry, such as Elk Valley Resources cutting 140 positions at its steel and coal operations in the Kootenays due to tough market conditions and punishing U.S. tariffs under Donald Trump. Per capita, public-sector hiring now significantly outpaces private-sector job growth, in a programme of white-collar welfare that recycles wealth instead of creating it.

Affordability is another issue that is crippling younger British Columbians and those trying to start a stable family life. So, yes, the next B.C. Conservative leader should be absolutely ruthless in reforming the economy, much as B.C. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell was in the early 2000s.

After forming government, Campbell immediately made deep income tax cuts, embarked on a crusade against the regulatory regime, and slashed thousands of public-sector jobs to reorient the economy towards productivity and the private sector.

Campbell also had the luxury of living in a world where people could take social and cultural norms and trust for granted, without having to fight a rearguard action in the culture war. These conditions allowed federal Liberals and Conseratives to co-exist in the “free enterprise coalition”.

A quarter of a century later, economic policy cannot be divorced from law and culture. An economic revitalisation cannot be credibly promised if British Columbia’s sense of identity, property rights, and truth itself are under attack.

The new environment created by the Cowichan Tribes decision, and the broader implications of DRIPA, have shifted the question of land use and property rights from a lecture hall to the pocketbooks of British Columbians.

Those who dismiss critics of DRIPA and the Cowichan decision fail to empathise with the justified public mood of uncertainty. The question of who owns the land on which a family’s house sits has created risk that lenders and insurers will not touch with a ten-foot pole.

It goes beyond confusion, for B.C. is slipping towards a model of governance where elected authority is crippled, and decision-making becomes opaque to the public. People cannot relax when the direction of their province could be thrown into the hands of not only the provincial government, but increasingly the courts and dozens of First Nations and Indigenous bands.

There has been so much secrecy from David Eby and the NDP regarding the outcomes of DRIPA and land-use deals that public consent may not effectively exist going forward.

The person who will lead the B.C. Conservatives must be the alternative, and must be willing to fight hard on the political, legal, and rhetorical front to ensure clarity, and to ensure property rights are assured for the future. This is not a job for a simple manager from the business world.

In fact, one of the biggest cleavages between the B.C. Conservative base and some of its nominal allies in parts of the business sector is the tension between immigration and labour markets. This is where the economic managerial types get exposed.

Many businesses and associations have complained that their operations are vulnerable due to the departure of thousands of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), especially in the restaurant sector. They are demanding a restoration of access to cheap foreign labour that can make fusion rice bowls and wash dishes.

On the other hand, there is something far more important than the profit margins of restaurant chains offering largely identical menus: British Columbians, especially young people. Many have found themselves locked out of entry-level jobs, thereby extending their economic adolescence well into their 20s, which is unacceptable.

Even Premier Eby himself has asserted that the TFW programme is “not working,” and called for its cancellation due to the crowding out of young British Columbians from employment. Letting the NDP outflank the right on jobs and immigration when the movement is trending younger and blue-collar is a non-starter.

Wage suppression is real, and the dishwashing lobby does not deserve to be the arbiter of the labour market. B.C. workers come first, especially those in critical sectors like mining and natural gas.

Public opinion is not on the side of the TFW programme’s propagandists, either. A majority of Canadians want the annual levels of newcomers to be curbed. It is no longer a sideshow written off as part of a “culture war.”

Furthermore, the culture war is real, and it matters. Those who insist it is a distraction are often the ones on the left who spend a lot of time and energy winning it, and would prefer there to be no resistance.

David Eby is one, who has beamed that the NDP government is a “firewall” against “U.S.-style” cultural debates, as if his own government and party do not shamelessly copy the Democratic Party’s talking points.

In B.C., the culture war has galloped through the institutions, which now guide the next generation of British Columbians to be contemptuous of the society and province they will inherit.

In 2023, the B.C. Conservatives dipped their toe into the culture war by calling for the removal of a young adult novel from public school libraries due to inappropriate, sexually explicit language. It raised a storm, but it helped make the party the voice of British Columbians who reject such gross licentiousness being made available to their children.

It was also part of what helped them become the party for conservatives in this province, and it leapfrogged B.C. United, which tried to occupy a non-viable middle ground on social issues.

Now, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation is pushing the goal of “queering outdoor education,” as if homosexuals and heterosexuals experience trees and rivers in different ways. It is a backward, toxic idea, and part of an ideological snowball that must be melted down.

The Royal BC Museum in Victoria is another instance of this, labelling non-Indigenous visitors as “uninvited guests,” and lecturing field trips about their colonial guilt as well. It is all connected.

Former Victoria mayor Lisa Helps helped push through the removal of Victoria’s statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in 2018. Only after did she offer token regret for not listening to dissenting voices. Helps is now an adviser to David Eby, who is now contrite pushed through DRIPA and the changes to land use in B.C., both of which are now rocking his government.

The B.C. Conservatives rose amid all this change and tumult, and they were built by an alliance of young activists from the right who were unapologetic in their goal of creating a true conservative option in B.C. Many of them started in the old free enterprise coalition, some came from federal politics, and others from the grassroots.

In 2022, when few believed the then-mothballed party had a future, these activists were building something new, and something better. They are not going back in the box.

Former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad tried to marginalise them and appeal to federal Liberals in the old B.C. Liberal way, and was toppled for his trouble, just like B.C. United before him. No one else needs to waste time, money, and energy learning this same lesson the hard way.

They can be from the grassroots, Ottawa, the world of business, or even the former B.C. Liberals, which offered a home to movement conservatives, even if the party’s top brass often sidelined them.

Regardless, if any figure seeking to succeed Rustad is not willing to confront the NDP’s ideological project head-on, they have no place anywhere near the head of the B.C. Conservative Party. The NDP are spent and bereft of ideas or direction, and the age is primed for conservative ideals.

On property rights, culture, public order, immigration, and identity, British Columbians need a new champion, and a conservative champion at that.

Geoff Russ is the Editor-at-Large of Without Diminishment. He is a contributor to a number of publications, including the National Post, Modern Age, and The Spectator Australia.