In today's newsletter: • According to Vaughn Palmer from the Vancouver Sun, Conservative leaders, including John Rustad, are putting their trust in Elections B.C. and encouraging a forward-thinking approach focused on refining their message and getting ready for the next election, which could be just a couple of years away.
• Montreal Gazette’s Josh Freed suggests that if the U.S. election is stressing you out, it might be time to unplug for a bit. Turn off the news—your nerves will thank you! Spend time with friends who aren’t glued to election updates or chill with your pets. And most importantly, remember to laugh.
• Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley argues that reusable grocery bags might actually have a bigger environmental impact than single-use plastic ones, since they need to be reused many times to make up for their production footprint, making the plastic bag ban more about “looking green” than truly benefiting the environment. |
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Conservative Leader John Rustad joins chorus rebutting attacks on Elections B.C. |
VICTORIA — While many of us were clicking — and clicking — and clicking — for an update on election night, a student journalist was interviewing the Conservative candidate in one of the tightest races in the province.
Her professor had dispatched his class to work in the field with instruction in the basics.
“Ask the question and wait,” Stephen Hume told them. “Politicians can’t stand dead air.”
For student Alyona Latsinnik, the opportunity paid off in journalism gold. Ensconced at Conservative headquarters in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, she asked candidate Marina Sapozhnikov a range of questions until talk turned to the reporter’s own area of academic study: Indigenous studies.
Then it was only a matter of her sitting back and listening, with the occasional reportorial interruption of the do-go-on variety.
Indigenous Peoples had been “savages,” said Sapozhnikov. Indigenous studies, as taught in Canadian universities, was “a lie. They make them enlightened people. They didn’t have an alphabet.”
All of that capped by the retired medical doctor turned Conservative hopeful telling the reporter: “You go ahead and print it, I don’t care. ... This needs to be talked about.”
The story was printed in The Vancouver Sun on Saturday. The overview piece by Dan Fumano drew on a followup interview with the candidate where she confirmed and expanded on her views.
Conservative Leader John Rustad responded that he was “appalled and deeply saddened” by his candidate’s comments.
"Her words are not only inaccurate, but profoundly harmful, painting a distorted picture of the communities I have worked alongside for many years," Rustad said by email.
"Our party stands for unity, respect and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. We must continue to move forward by embracing truth and compassion — not harmful misconceptions that only divide us further."
MLA Peter Milobar, re-elected as a Conservative in his Kamloops riding, expressed “outrage and sadness” on social media.
“As a white male who married into a First Nations family, they welcomed me with open arms,” he wrote. “The comments are reprehensible and I do not condone them or share those views in any way, shape or form.”
Rustad did not dump Sapozhnikov as a candidate or suggest she should quit. At the time, she was trailing New Democrat Dana Lajeunesse by a mere 23 votes, giving the Conservatives their best shot at reversing a seat in their favour. By Monday’s final count, the NDP lead had expanded to 123 votes.
I expect some Conservatives quietly welcomed the news that Sapozhnikov was out.
The Conservatives also lost ground elsewhere. In Surrey-Guildford, New Democrat Garry Begg erased a 103-vote deficit to pull ahead by a handful of votes on Monday.
The tally was close enough that the seat was destined for a recount in front of a B.C. Supreme Court judge, a process that could take another week or two.
The prolonged counting and see-saw results sparked a backlash on social media over a supposedly rigged election on behalf of the NDP.
Such tomfoolery.
As if a government bent on rigging an election would concoct a result that delivered a one-vote majority by a dozen votes in one riding.
Happily, Conservative party president Aisha Estey gave a vote of confidence to Elections B.C.
“I spent the last two days in a warehouse watching the transcription and counting of mail ballots,” she wrote on her social media account on X.
“Elections B.C. staff have been working tirelessly and doing their best within the confines of the legislation that governs their work. Would we have liked the mail-ins to be counted closer to E-day? Sure. But I saw nothing that caused me concern.”
Harman Bhangu, the newly elected Conservative MLA for Langley-Aldergrove, also praised Elections B.C.
“I have full trust in the election process and the hard work of Elections B.C. staff to deliver results as efficiently as possible,” he wrote on X.
Then there was John Rustad himself.
After Saturday’s counting produced shifts in favour of the NDP and away from the Conservatives, Rustad told me he expected that the outcome to be a minority or a majority for the David Eby government.
When I spoke to him by phone Monday morning, he said he would be putting out a statement after Elections B.C. finalized the count later in the day.
But he indicated he had no concerns about the way Elections B.C. was doing its job. The Conservatives were prepared to accept the final count, subject to any judicial recounts as mandated by the Election Act.
Looking ahead to a likely term in Opposition, the Conservatives could do worse than heed the advice of first-term MLA Bhangu.
“Coming from a sports background, I know that winning teams reflect on what they could have done better instead of blaming referees for the outcome,” he wrote.
“I’d rather focus on the future — thinking about where we can improve our work and how to make our message even stronger. Let us put our energy toward getting ready for the next election.”
Which could be here in a year or two, depending on how the parties handle themselves in a legislature as tight as the one elected this month. |
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