{"id":2039,"date":"2025-10-22T07:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/b-c-conservative-leader-faces-backlash-over-handling-of-mlas-departure\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:15:36","slug":"b-c-conservative-leader-faces-backlash-over-handling-of-mlas-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/b-c-conservative-leader-faces-backlash-over-handling-of-mlas-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Conservative leader faces backlash over handling of MLA\u2019s departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>British ColumbiaJohn Rustad is being criticized by some within his own party over his comments about Amelia Boultbee, the fifth MLA to quit or be kicked out of the Official Opposition. John Rustad denies he was talking about MLA\u2019s mental health. Amelia Boultbee calls comments \u2018shameful\u2019Katie DeRosa  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Oct 21, 2025 10:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours agoAmelia Boultbee, MLA for Penticton-Summerland, speaks to reporters about her decision to leave the Conservative caucus on Oct. 20, 2025 (CBC News )B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is facing criticism over how he handled the departure of Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee.Boultbee is the fifth MLA to either leave or be kicked out of the Official Opposition in the span of a year.Speaking to reporters on Monday, Rustad brought up concerns about Boultbee\u2019s stances on various issues, as well as what he described as her health.He was then asked directly if he was talking about her mental health.\u201cI had concerns when she\u2019s in tears, staff are telling me that she\u2019s very confused,\u201d Rustad said. WATCH | Another MLA leaves B.C. Conservative caucus:Another MLA leaves the B.C. Conservative PartyAnother MLA is leaving the B.C. Conservative Party. Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee announced that Monday morning, pointing at the leadership of John Rustad as the reason. As Katie DeRosa reports, it\u2019s the latest blow for leader Rustad as he struggles to keep his caucus together.He also said he was talking to staff about whether Boultbee should take a leave of absence.Boultbee said she confided in Rustad five months ago that she did seek mental health support while working on a disturbing child abuse case as the party\u2019s critic for the Ministry of Children and Family Development.\u201cHe\u2019s simply weaponizing information that is personal to me in order to cast doubt on me,\u201d Boultbee told Gloria Macarenko of CBC\u2019s On the Coast. \u201cI think it\u2019s utterly shameful that a man who is trying to be the premier could say something like that when so many British Columbians struggle with their mental health. His misogyny is so deep that he says, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s crazy.&#8217;\u201dOn Tuesday, Rustad denied that he was talking about Boultbee\u2019s mental health. \u201cI did not raise mental health. What I did say is that we were providing support, and we had some concerns and we were trying to work through issues with her,\u201d Rustad told reporters. \u201cLook, obviously emotions are something that is welcome and all people, I\u2019ll tell you something,not just women cry.\u201dRustad was asked why he spoke about Boultbee crying and being confused. \u201cStaff raised an issue of concern about an individual in our caucus and felt there needed to be support and attention and we tried to provide that to this individual.\u201dAsked if he would apologize to Boultbee, Rustad said: \u201cI don\u2019t believe I owe her an apology, no.\u201d Trevor Bolin, the former head of the B.C. Conservatives, said he\u2019s been watching the drama unfold with dismay. WATCH | Departing B.C. Conservative MLA criticizes party leader:\u2019Misogyny is so deep\u2019: Departing B.C. Conservative MLA takes shots at party leaderPenticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee has left the B.C. Conservative caucus, which has lost five MLAs since the last election. After her departure was announced, Conservative Leader John Rustad said that \u201cwith regards to Amelia\u2019s health, I mean, I see concerns \u2014 when she\u2019s in tears, staff are telling me that she\u2019s very confused and so, I mean, I had some concerns.\u201d Speaking to the CBC News, Boultbee said Rustad was weaponizing personal information, calling it \u201cutterly shameful.\u201d\u201cIt\u2019s terrible. For John to bring up mental health, that was extremely disappointing,\u201d said Bolin. \u201cI hope that the backlash he\u2019s seeing on social media has made him aware that there was a better way to handle that.\u201dBolin, who led the party from 2019 until 2023, said Rustad should step down as he\u2019s lost the confidence of many MLAs and party faithful.\u201cYou\u2019re the leader, you need to own that. You\u2019re the only reason people are leaving.\u201d Conservative MLA Brennan Day wrote on social media: \u201cTo weaponize or trivialize someone\u2019s health condition, mental or otherwise, is harmful to those who already face stigma in silence.\u201dDay has so far turned down requests for an interview to elaborate on his post. Several NDP ministers slammed Rustad for his comments, including Attorney General Niki Sharma. \u201cI found it really disappointing that that\u2019s the form of leadership he\u2019s providing to people who look to him as a leader, not only to his own caucus but to the province,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you should be calling out somebody\u2019s mental health and I think he should apologize.\u201dThe party infightingcomes amid a new poll from Abacus Data showing that 47 per cent of decided voters would cast a ballot for the NDP if an election were held, compared to 40 per cent support for the B.C. Conservatives. Bolin said if Premier David Eby were to call a snap election next year, he believes the NDP would win a large majority if Rustad was still leader. Rustad, however, said he has no worries about how his party would fare among voters. \u201cI welcome an early election call if the premier is so brave to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cOur internal polling actually shows us tied [with the NDP].\u201dThe Official Opposition B.C. Conservatives are down five MLAs from their seat count of 44 after election day.Two MLAs \u2014 Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong \u2014 formed a new party called One B.C. earlier this year.Brodie was kicked out of the Conservative caucus in March after Rustad accused her of mocking residential school survivors.Jordan Kealy \u2014 who left in solidarity with Brodie \u2014 and Elenore Sturko sit as Independents.ABOUT THE AUTHORKatie DeRosa is the provincial affairs reporter for CBC British Columbia. She is based in Victoria. You can contact her at katie.derosa@cbc.ca. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British ColumbiaJohn Rustad is being criticized by some within his own party over his comments about Amelia Boultbee, the fifth MLA to quit or be kicked out of the Official Opposition. John Rustad denies he was talking about MLA\u2019s mental health. Amelia Boultbee calls comments \u2018shameful\u2019Katie DeRosa \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Oct 21, 2025 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,118,1],"tags":[120,116],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-british-columbia","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","tag-british-columbia","tag-indigenous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}