Just as John Rustad’s Conservative Party of British Columbia takes the lead in the polls, Premier David Eby is pulling no stops to scandalize his main opponent.
A recent poll released Tuesday by Mainstreet Research showed that if the election were held today 39% of British Columbians would vote for the B.C. Conservatives while 35% would vote for Eby’s provincial NDP.
At a press conference, Eby criticized Rustad for several candidates nominated under his party, most of whom have been removed.
“I think John Rustad should explain how it is that consistently he is putting forward candidates that embrace and promote conspiracy theories from the darkest corners of the internet. Because actually, I think that’s his core belief as well,” Eby said, echoing a statement released by the B.C. United party on the same topic.
B.C. United received 12% of the vote in the same poll that projects Rustad ahead of the NDP.
Eby pointed to Sharon Hartwell, the B.C Conservative candidate for Bulkley Valley—Stikine as an example.
Hartwell said Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, leaders in the Freedom Convoy movement who are currently undergoing the most extended mischief trial in Canadian history, “continue to be an inspiration” on social media.
“If I were to suggest something, it might be that John Rustad come out and explain why he’s nominating candidates who, for example, find the people on criminal trial for the anti-vax convoy conduct that they engaged in, why they would describe that as inspiring, as one conservative candidate recently did,” Eby said in the video.
The Freedom Convoy protest held in Ottawa in 2022 was against mandates which required Canadians to get COVID-19 shots to keep their jobs or to go to school and were not explicitly “anti-vaccine.”
“The Freedom Convoy was an inspiration because it demonstrated the power of standing up against government overreach and defending our freedoms,” Hartwell said on Facebook last week in response to the outcry.
Eby noted previous B.C. Conservative nominees who have been kicked out or have resigned from the party over comments they have said which don’t align with Eby’s vision of acceptable discourse.
“(Rustad should) explain why he nominates candidates who think that people who are gay are perverts and deviants and grooming children,” Eby said, referring to former B.C. Conservative candidate for Courtney—Comox, Damon Scrase, dropped out of the race for past social media comments he made before being a candidate.
Scrase was targeted for old tweets he made condemning people who attend Pride parades in the nude around children as “degenerate” and retweeting photos he found disturbing from Pride parades.
According to Scrase, he dropped out of the race at the end of May so his comments wouldn’t distract from the coming provincial election.
“I think it would be helpful for (Rustad) to come out and explain why his candidates believe that cell phone towers caused COVID-19 and are genocidal weapons,” Eby continued.
Opponents claim that Rustad’s candidate for Prince George—Mackenzie, Rachel Weber, “promoted conspiracy theories” on social media four years ago on Facebook.
According to the B.C. United party, Weber shared Facebook posts in 2020, at the start of the pandemic lockdowns, from a group called “Stop 5G Genocide” that said that “EMFS + 60ghz, 5G, is a weapon.” Other posts that Eby and B.C. United pointed to was from the same group, suggesting that 5G frequencies were altering the human immune system, making it more susceptible to COVID-19.
Eby also mentioned Dr. Stephen Malthouse, an anti-vaccine mandate doctor and former B.C. Conservative candidate for Ladysmith—Oceanside. Malthouse was dropped from the party at the end of March once clips surfaced of him saying the COVID-19 shots were magnetizing people.
“David Eby is getting desperate. Instead of running on his disastrous policies, he’s trying to gaslight the public and slander the Conservative movement. The BC NDP is losing and is desperate to try to distract from their failing government by attacking our candidates,” Angelo Isidorou, the campaign director for the B.C. Conservatives told True North. “I believe British Columbian voters are smart enough to see through the noise and clearly assess the failures of the NDP, including decriminalization of hard drugs, a worsening affordability crisis and rampant crime.”
