Rustad’s partner in rise of B.C. Conservatives hails him as party’s ‘founding father’

VICTORIA — A former British Columbia Conservative executive who helped John Rustad orchestrate the rise of the party from obscurity is honouring its former leader as a trailblazer who transformed the province’s political scene.

Former Conservative executive director Angelo Isidorou says Rustad, who has announced his retirement from politics, was “sent to the wilderness” when he was expelled from the B.C. Liberals in 2022, but “came back and created a movement.”

Isidorou says the B.C. Conservatives would not exist in their modern form without the legislator from Nechako Lakes and its predecessor riding in northern B.C., where he has been an MLA since 2005.

The Conservatives received less than two per cent of the vote in the 2020 B.C. election, but Isidorou says Rustad legitimatized the party when he joined in February 2023, then convinced Bruce Banman to follow, conferring official party status.

The party came within three seats of forming government in the October 2024 election, only for Rustad to be forced out as a leader last December amid infighting that had seen legislators quit the caucus.

Isidorou says the “founding father” of the B.C. Conservatives was a profoundly hard working leader in the months after joining the party, driving by himself for hours to get to a meeting or interview.

He says Rustad was underestimated by opponents, whether it was the NDP or BC United, which folded its campaign in August 2024 as the Conservatives soared in pre-election polls.

Rustad suffered his second ejection from an opposition caucus last Friday, when he was thrown out of the Conservatives by Kerry-Lynne Findlay, only to return after Findlay quit the party’s leadership and was replaced by interim leader Lorne Doerkson.

Rustad said Wednesday that the party is good hands with Doerkson, but that his own time as a legislator is over.

“Serving this province, and serving Nechako Lakes has been some of the most rewarding times of my life,” he said in a statement. “I’m grateful for every year of it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press