John Rustad had the most to win in the TV leaders’ debate — a solid, likeable, measured performance could have helped the BC Conservative leader neutralize weeks of attacks against his character and shown undecided voters there’s nothing to fear from electing him premier.
That didn’t happen.
A miserable-looking Rustad, who barely cracked a single smile over the entire 90-minute event, failed to rise to the moment.
He stared off into the distance, refusing to make eye contact with his opponents. He didn’t look into the camera to speak directly to voters at home. He delivered monotone answers, absent the passion and emotion you’d expect from someone whipping up a change movement built upon public anger. His makeup gave him the pallor of a cadaver.
If he had prepared any new lines to use against David Eby, to help prosecute a seven-year record of NDP government, he must have forgotten them. At times, he looked nervous. At other times, he looked like an android someone had turned off.
“As a government, Conservatives will be laser-focused on people,” said Rustad. OK.
Rustad seemed to peak early in the debate, with an anecdote about passing a person who had died of an overdose on his way to the debate.
“This is the British Columbia David Eby has created,” he said.
Rustad’s performance was a bit surprising because he can be quite engaging at speeches and media events when he wants. He knows how to work a room and whip up a crowd. Despite what the NDP say about him, he can be warm and empathetic when talking to people.
But that was not the Rustad who showed up to the one and only TV leaders’ debate Tuesday night. It’s not the premier-in-waiting that undecided voters wanted to see. And it did absolutely nothing to push back against the NDP attempts to portray him as an odd man prone to wacky conspiracy theories who leads a team of weirdos that should not be given the keys to government.
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau had the best night at the debate.
She used the most relatable language, anecdotes and stories with which to illustrate her arguments. She routinely painted both Eby and Rustad as out-of-touch dinosaurs whose vision for the province is retrograde. She smiled, and laughed and put her elbows up to make space for herself in a conversation where the two other leaders were trying to cut her out.
“What these two offer is either more of the same or back to the past,” she said.
Furstenau once again proved the value of the BC Greens in the province’s political landscape. It would be a shame if that failed to translate into actual seats under our first-past-the-post system.
Then there’s David Eby.
A skilled public speaker and debater, he did a perfectly adequate job articulating his position. He walked a fine line between prosecuting Rustad on things like his failure to produce a costed platform, while also interrupting him so many times that he looked frustrated and aggressive.
“When you are a climate change denier … that it’s false, a hoax and a lie and people have been tricked, how do you lead a province whose massive advantage is clean electricity, some of the lowest carbon products available?” Eby asked Rustad.
Still, despite 90 minutes of air time, the NDP leader did little to explain how the serious, challenging, problems bedevilling the province right now, from health care to addictions, were allowed to worsen so dramatically under seven years of NDP government that he’s now facing the prospect of losing to an opponent he describes as crazy.
And his position that B.C. is “starting to turn the corner” was tough to match up with reality, no matter how many times he repeated it.
Eby was much better when he attacked Rustad’s controversial comments and candidates — AKA the theme he has built his entire campaign upon.
“I regret we’re having to have a debate about a bunch of very polarizing topics,” Eby said, not sounding like he regretted it much at all.
“These are topics that used to be settled for British Columbians for a generation — climate change is real, vaccines work, we don't call gay people groomers, we respect people, we respect Indigenous people, we don’t promote hate and division. … and I regret I have to continually talk about these things because John Rustad has fielded candidates that promote these views that he himself also seems to hold some of these views.”
Rustad could have addressed it. Perhaps said something about not being perfect, but still being the best man for the job. Maybe tried to explain what he meant. Something. Anything. It was his moment to take a stand and address the public. But instead, he ignored it.
“David Eby wants to talk about conspiracy theories, anything but what’s actually going on because he cannot defend his government’s policies,” said Rustad.
Another missed opportunity on a night full of them for the BC Conservative leader.
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.
