B.C. Conservative leadership race will unify party members: Halford | Globalnews.ca

It was a surreal moment on a day full of such moments. Trevor Halford walked into the main chamber of the British Columbia legislature on Dec. 3 as interim leader of his Conservative Party of B.C., following an appointment by the party board. Hours earlier, 20 Conservative MLAs had released a letter in which they said that they had lost confidence in the leadership of John Rustad , following months of internal disputes that had dried up fundraising and diminished the party’s credibility. The party board released a letter, saying that Rustad, had become “professionally incapacitated.” But Rustad, who had won his leadership review with 71 per cent, refused to step aside, and minutes after Halford’s arrival, Rustad walked into the chamber to sit in the chair reserved for the leader of the official Opposition, as if nothing had happened. B.C. Conservatives appeared to have two leaders: one appointed by the party with the majority of caucus behind him, the other, claiming support from the membership and parts of the caucus. Three seats separated the two men who have known and worked with each other for years, as former B.C. Liberals. But neither acknowledged the other, as they were either typing on their phones, or rifling through papers. Neither spoke during Question Period. When Halford was asked about that moment, he paused and asked to think about it. “I tend to have an ability to tune things or push things out in the moment when you need to be focused, ” he said. “Yeah, it was a different thing walking into the (chamber) under those circumstances, but I was more focused on what was going on with my colleagues, and how they were processing it, because it was incredibly difficult for them. That was first and foremost my concern, and maybe it was John’s.” Halford called the 48 hours leading up to Rustad’s resignation on Dec. 4 “unprecedented,” and said the party is still trying to process what happened. Get breaking National news Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy . “But we’re here now, and I think that’s the most important part,” Halford said in a year-end interview as the interim leader of the Opposition. “We’re moving forward. The party has had some of the best fundraising days that it’s ever had. We’ve got people joining the party.” Halford acknowledged that the past political disputes have strained personal relationships within the caucus. “It is not lost on me, the toll that can take on people, the process that went through here,” he said. “It’s not lost on me, what John went through. It’s not lost on me, what my colleagues went through, but we have a duty to British Columbians, to our constituents and to the province, to make sure that we are always putting them first.” It was also Rustad’s rationale for resigning the day after the party’s two leaders had the awkward meeting in the house. Rustad said he wanted to avoid a “civil war” within the party,...

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