BC Conservatives on housing policy

Rustad thinks it's "crazy" to override municipal gatekeepers

John Rustad and Pierre Poilievre. Twitter, January 2023

Comparing Canada to the US, it’s relatively easy to pass legislation, but to keep that legislation in place, you also need to win elections. If you’re defeated, the succeeding government can just as easily pass legislation to reverse course.

So it’s not enough for David Eby and the BC NDP to pass legislation requiring municipalities to allow more housing, which they did last fall. They also need to win the next provincial election, coming up in October. They’re still in the lead, and David Coletto of Abacus thinks they’re still in a strong position, but the race is getting tighter, with the BC Conservative party at 34%, six points behind the BC NDP at 40%, and BC United (formerly the BC Liberals) trailing far behind at 13%.

Revival of the BC Conservatives as a Poilievre-style populist-conservative party

The BC Conservative party has been around for a long time, but they’ve spent a lot of time in the political wilderness - from what I can tell, the last time an MLA was elected under the BC Conservative banner was in 1975.

Wikipedia:

During the BC Liberal leadership race in 2022, conservative commentator Aaron Gunn entered the race, hoping to represent the party's right-wing. However, the BC Liberal Party disqualified Gunn, describing his views as "inconsistent" with the party's values.

Following his disqualification, Gunn founded Common Sense BC, an advocacy group that would study the viability of a right-wing alternative to the BC Liberals. Gunn's group endorsed a slate of candidates who stood for election to the Conservative board at the party's May 2022 AGM, launching a takeover of the party. The endorsed candidates were elected, and young right-wing advocates took control of the party.

On February 16, 2023, John Rustad, MLA for Nechako Lakes, joined the Conservative Party, giving the party representation in the Legislature. Rustad was elected as a Liberal but was removed from party caucus in August 2022, after he refused to undo his retweet of a comment casting doubt that climate change is caused by carbon dioxide emissions. Rustad cited "irreconcilable differences" with Liberal leader Kevin Falcon in explaining his party change.

On September 13, 2023, BC United MLA Bruce Banman crossed the floor to join the Conservatives. This gave the Conservatives the two MLAs necessary for official party status, and Banman became the party's house leader.

It may seem surprising that a party could come out of nowhere and have a reasonable chance of forming government, but this kind of shift in BC politics has happened before, with the BC Socreds forming government in 1952 (and remaining in power for most of the following four decades), and then the Socreds collapsing as voters shifted to the BC Liberals.

John Rustad on housing

Rustad is saying that he’ll roll back all of the housing policies that the BC NDP has put in place.

Mike Smyth on CKNW, May 16:

Caller (Rick in Delta): I'd like to ask Mr. Rustad. Will you follow suit with respect to what the government's doing currently, dictating to communities what they look like, what they have to build, what they can use it for, like Airbnb, telling somebody that they can go and build a six-unit apartment building next door to my single-family rancher? Will you follow suit with that?

Rustad: So those are all legislation that the NDP has brought in. I would repeal all of that. Now we want to work with communities around densification, we got to do that, but it has to be through proper process. And we elect municipal councillors and mayors for a reason.

Smyth: Okay, so right now the government has basically brought in province-wide densification, with some exceptions, where as the caller said, you could put up a six-plex condo, tear down a single-family home, put up six condo units on a single-family lot. And that's been basically forced on municipalities, right? So you're saying you would retract all that? It would all go back to municipal control?

Rustad: There's no plans for parking, there's no plans for traffic problems, there's no plans for water and sewer, there's no plans for parks, there's no plans for playgrounds or schools, or any the rest of that kind of stuff. And you're overriding municipal councillors. You're taking away the democratic right and the democratic vote. And you're overriding official community plans, you're not even allowing public hearings on the issues. This is crazy. This just shouldn't be happening.

Meanwhile, housing is so scarce and expensive in Metro Vancouver that prices and rents have to rise to unbearable levels to force people to leave, matching those remaining to the limited supply. I always tell older homeowners that if younger people can't afford to live here, the healthcare system is going to collapse.

Rustad’s also opposed to BC’s new regulations on Airbnb and other short-term rentals. John Rustad on the Mike Smyth show, October 2023.

The upcoming election

Mark Jaccard talks about how on climate policy, there's politicians who are sincere and those who are insincere. The same thing applies to housing, and from what I can tell, David Eby is 100% sincere. (I've talked to quite a few politicians who are basically defeatist on housing.)

I’m a federal Liberal, not an NDPer. But as someone who is extremely concerned about housing being so scarce and expensive in Metro Vancouver, I think it’s really important for the BC NDP to be re-elected.

I always think of an election as being like a tug-of-war: your individual effort isn't going to decide the outcome, but you can add to the strength of your chosen side. I’m planning to go door-knocking regularly for one of the BC NDP campaigns. (Campaigns always need people who are willing to volunteer regularly.)

If you’d like to get involved, here’s the sign-up pages for each of the parties:

• BC NDP

• BC Conservatives

• BC United

• BC Greens