BC United leader calls BC Conservatives a 'small fringe party'

Facebook/ Kevin Falcon and THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

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With British Columbia’s NDP Premier David Eby sitting "relatively strong in voter approval" according to a recent Angus Reid Institute poll, it’s clear that every conservative-minded vote will matter in this year’s provincial election for the two separate right-of-centre provincial parties. 

Although the writ drop is months away, with the general election in October, political shots are being fired between BC United (BCU) and the Conservative Party of BC.

BC United calls Conservative Party of BC a “small fringe party” that will split some votes only due to voter confusion during a Town Hall in Langley. https://t.co/DUzGP5f1O2 pic.twitter.com/hwMx0AgVIY

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) March 15, 2024

During the Langley stop of his "Ask Me Anything"-style town hall events, BC United Leader Kevin Falcon called the Conservative Party of BC a "small fringe party," unworthy of much concern.

"We’ve always had vote splitting in this province and the BC Conservative Party is not connected to the Federal Conservative Party at all," Falcon began explaining to attendees. 

"They’re a small fringe party, they’ve been around for 70 years and the one advantage that they have is having the same name as the federal party," he continued. "In every single election the BC Conservatives have always been there, and do they sometimes cause the NDP to win some seats? Yes, they do, mainly because of voter confusion."

"No one’s paying attention right now, just so you know. You can go out and ask the first 10 strangers you meet out there and ask them who’s the leader of the BC Conservative party. 8 out of 10 won’t know, and the other 2 will say Pierre Poilievre," claimed Falcon.

While it’s true that the BC Conservative Party has been around for years, the underdog party has achieved some noteworthy success since rebranding itself as the Conservative Party of BC in 2022.

In February 2023, the CPBC attracted Nechako Lake’s John Rustad, as its first sitting MLA in over 12 years. Rustad, now the CPBC’s leader, had been serving as an Independent after getting booted out of the BC United Party (formerly BC Liberal) after refusing to apologize for retweeting comments by Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore that didn’t align with the climate alarmist policies of the BC United. Seven months after Rustad joined the CPBC, the BC United saw another former member of their caucus team up with Rustad’s party as Abbotsford-South MLA Bruce Banman crossed the floor, which resulted in the CPBC achieving the two seats necessary to have official party status in the Legislature.

“Yes, we are the oldest party in BC. The party has been dormant for 70 years, running a couple of candidates in each election. Now, the Party has been reborn and has official status in the Legislature, which it hasn't had in seven decades,” CPBC Executive Director, Angelo Isidorou, wrote in a statement to Rebel News about Falcon’s "don’t sweat the polls" comments.

“Every single public poll in the past 7 months has shown BCU trailing us in third place. If Kevin is worried about vote-splitting, he should resign and throw his support around the only party that has managed to get close to defeating the NDP in the polls,” added Isidorou.

Rustad also provided Rebel News with a statement, one that likened Falcon to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his choice to describe his opposition as being a “small fringe.”

“Justin Trudeau called Canadians who disagreed with him a 'small fringe minority.' Clearly birds of a feather flock together. The Falcon/Trudeau alliance can cast all the insults they want. British Columbians are looking for a commonsense government that will stand for what’s right,” Rustad wrote.

Falcon’s "fringe" descriptor of the CPBC wasn’t just a one-time thing. In a recent video posted to the BCU leader’s social media where Falcon sought to “stop the misinformers” from claiming he ever supported the decriminalization of drugs in BC, Falcon stated the following:

“I want to respond to a fringe political party in British Columbia that tries to pretend they’re connected to the Federal Conservatives when they’re not. And they’ve been out there saying that Kevin Falcon and BC United somehow support the decriminalization [of drugs] so let me make this really clear, have not, will not and never have supported decriminalization,” stated Falcon.

“In fact, I’ve said publicly many times that within 90 days of forming government and as premier, I will scrap the NDP’s and David Eby’s reckless decriminalization of hard and dangerous drugs. Instead, we’re going to have free treatment for people, not free drugs,” Falcon added.

BC United leader Kevin Falcon calls the BC Conservatives a “fringe political party” as Falcon and BC Conservative leader John Rustad compete for who can be photographed the most with Pierre Poilievre.

I’m sure the BC Conservatives will flip over these decriminalization comments. pic.twitter.com/TqsfS7upQN

— Mo Amir 🪬 (@vancolour) March 13, 2024

Former South Surrey CPBC Candidate Harman Bhangu took to X to share a video response to Falcon’s statements, which includes a video of Kamloops BC United MLA, Todd Stone saying “to be very very clear, we supported decriminalization as long as it was done in the context of the letter of requirements as provided by the federal government."

British Columbia’s 43rd general election is expected to take place on October 19th.