STOP THE CON: A Call to defeat John Rustad and the BC Conservative Party

Sep 5

Written By Democratic Socialists of Vancouver

John Rustad and the newly united right wing in British Columbia are a clear and present danger that require an urgent collective response.

The agenda of Rustad and the BC Conservative Party is a threat to workers, poor people, Indigenous people, migrants, and all marginalized people in the province – indeed, they are a threat to everyone who is not part of the corporate elite or ruling class.

To highlight just a few examples:

Rustad is a denier of the climate crisis, and has repeatedly spread disinformation minimizing or dismissing outright the threat of fossil fuel pollution and global warming. The Conservatives will rip up B.C.’s already inadequate policies for reducing emissions, making it even easier for oil, gas, and coal companies to pollute and profit.

Rustad proposes absolutely nothing to solve the severe housing and affordability crisis. He will make life much worse for renters, and he has allegedly been talking about removing rent controls entirely. This would mean landlords would have no limits at all on hiking the rents of tenants already struggling to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads.The logical result would be a massive increase in homelessness, while Rustad promises to violently attack homeless encampments.

Rustad has said he will repeal the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an appalling reversal of the progress made towards true reconciliation and justice for Indigenous peoples. On this file, his Conservatives want to Make B.C. the 19th Century Again.

Rustad is a clear threat to LBGTQ+ people and their rights and freedoms. He and his roster of candidates have repeatedly stated their opposition to SOGI – the suite of inclusive, anti-bullying sex and gender education policies first introduced in 2016 by the B.C. Liberal government – and he has promised to “review” all education materials.

Rustad and the Conservatives have made it clear that they intend to let far more drug users die, as they have relentlessly fearmongered and opposed the decriminalization of drug users. Harm reduction supports for drug users are already inadequate, and Rustad wants to eliminate them and instead implement involuntary detention for people who use illicit drugs - a cruel and deeply harmful approach to a public health crisis.

On health care, the Conservatives’ platform openly talks about privatizing health care and withdrawing the court case against private clinics — long been understood as an important defence of our universal public health system — in order to “unleash the potential of private-sector innovation.” Based on their ideological bent and the record of the previous BC Liberal government of which Rustad was part, we can also anticipate that the Conservatives will attack health workers and their unions.

The way to defeat Rustad’s far-right Conservatives and the agenda they represent is not to retreat to the political centre and insist there’s nothing wrong with the status quo, but rather to mobilize and organize for a transformative alternative to the rotten and rigged capitalist system.

We need to stop the Conservatives, but we also need to make demands on the BC NDP government to implement real rent control and build public housing, end fracking and fossil fuel pipeline expansion, return land back to Indigenous peoples and tax the rich. We also must demand that the BC NDP condemn Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The Democratic Socialists of Vancouver, therefore, calls on people to mobilize to oppose and defeat Rustad’s far-right Conservatives and to organize to win the policies we need.

We must speak up and take action at this critical moment in the history of our Province. Our fight includes mobilizing against Rustad’s hateful agenda, and it also includes urging all other candidates to commit to the bold policies we need. Throughout all this, DSoV’s working groups and members will continue to support the vital social movement organizations on the frontlines of the social, economic, and environmental crises that Rustad’s Conservatives will accelerate and worsen.

Together, we can beat back Rustad and the right and continue the fight for a more just province and a better world.

The DSOV is organizing. Send us an Email for more information democraticsocialistsyvr@gmail.com