Former BC Conservative Leader John Rustad Will Not Seek Re-election

Former B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad has announced he will not run in the upcoming provincial election.

The Nechako Lakes MLA posted a statement to his social media accounts on Sept. 24, saying his time in the political arena “is now done.”

“I have given this place what I had to give & I would give it again, however, my time is done, but the work is not,” he wrote. “It is time to pass the torch to the next generation.”

Rustad’s post comes two days after NDP Leader David Eby called a snap election that will see voters heading to the polls on Oct. 24.

Rustad had recently accepted an invitation to rejoin the Conservative Party following his removal from the Conservative caucus just days earlier by Kerry-Lynne Findlay. After Findlay stepped down as party leader, interim leader Lorne Doerkson extended an invitation for Rustad to rejoin the party.

The Conservative Party of BC’s Election Readiness Committee announced on Sept. 23 it had approved every sitting member of the party’s caucus to run as a candidate in the election next month, but confirmed Rustad’s decision to retire from provincial politics.

The party thanked Rustad and wished him well.

“Under his leadership, our party grew from less than 2 percent of the vote to Official Opposition,” the party said in a statement. “The Conservative Party of BC would never have reached where it is today without his conviction, hard work and willingness to stand up when few others would.”

Rustad thanked the constituents in his northern B.C. riding of Nechako Lakes for supporting him since 2005.

He also offered words of advice to his future replacement.

“I do not hand them a finished province. I hand them something rarer. I hand them a charge,” he wrote. “Forge policy that will unlock the resources of this land. Put our people back to work. Keep families in the towns that raised them. Bring down a debt the NDP has made unsustainable.”

Rustad previously held a cabinet position in the former BC Liberal government, before the party lost power in the 2017 election. He was kicked out of the BC Liberal successor BC United in 2022 for liking a comment on social media that challenged the idea that carbon dioxide is the “control knob of global temperature.” He joined the BC Conservatives in 2023, becoming their leader shortly after. Under his leadership, the party won 44 seats in the 2024 provincial election, becoming the Official Opposition.