Western Standard - BC Conservatives ready to take back government

00:00:00.000 I'm here on the floor of the Federal

00:00:27.580 conservative convention in calgary with the interim leader of the bc conservative party trevor

00:00:33.260 halford uh trevor you just got into town now but uh thanks for taking some time to stop and talk

00:00:38.600 with us thanks for having me i literally got just in town just landed uh i got my uh got my ride

00:00:44.360 here and i'm talking to you so it's a good start you haven't even checked in your hotel yet i have

00:00:48.000 not i probably won't until i'm going to bed so so it's all good you can wait good good um well

00:00:54.120 actually we're just we were kind of just beginning to chat about it over here um i really want to

00:00:58.760 talk about uh what's happened with the bc conservatives and where things are going uh

00:01:03.200 you're the interim leader yeah um there's a leadership race taking place right now we'll

00:01:07.620 talk forward looking in a second but uh where you've gotten to be the interim leader is

00:01:13.120 it's a it's an unusual uh process um you know there's a leadership review this evening for

00:01:20.020 the members are voting uh in for the bc conservatives there was a lot of controversy

00:01:25.780 around the process that had taken place there yeah um uh but eventually obviously enough

00:01:32.480 members of the caucus had lost confidence in john rustad he did not step down immediately for it so

00:01:38.540 there was it seems to have been a chaotic process uh but ultimately things emerged uh it was very

00:01:47.120 messy but uh where are things now with the bc conservative caucus on the one hand and then more

00:01:52.580 broadly the bc conservative party in uh kind of getting people back in the same tent and not

00:01:59.480 clawing each other's eyes out yeah you know what honestly it's in a great spot it really is and

00:02:04.440 and the caucus in the party like there is this unification going on right now that feels great

00:02:10.380 and i've got a front row seat for it uh going into the leadership race which is scheduled to

00:02:15.040 conclude on May 30th. And I, you know, for our caucus, we've got great MLAs, right, that have

00:02:21.720 been there over a year now that are really sinking their teeth, that are holding this government to

00:02:25.220 account. People are seeing that firsthand. Yeah, we have some growing pains. I'll tell you what,

00:02:30.300 every caucus does. But what we realize right now is that we've got to be a government waiting

00:02:35.820 because nothing, nothing that this NDP government is touching right now is going well. We've got a

00:02:41.720 record 12 billion dollar deficit we've got 14 hour wait times minimum at some of our hospitals

00:02:47.540 on lower mainland we got emergency room closures all throughout the province and and i can tell you

00:02:53.400 is is crime has never been worse than it is right now so our guys know what's at stake and our party

00:03:00.060 knows that as well so we're in a we're in a good spot we're looking forward to the spring i don't

00:03:04.220 think for most of our people watching this you'll have to convince them that david eb's uh ndp are

00:03:09.500 you know they've kind of got the reverse Midas touch everything they touch goes to shit at this

00:03:13.860 point pretty much so I think BC conservatives understand the stakes but a lot of people have

00:03:19.040 looked at the extreme chaos that had consumed the party and that had turned a lot of I think

00:03:25.060 it's turned a lot of people off sure thinking that maybe these guys aren't ready for prime time yet

00:03:29.760 yeah I know what that's kind of like I came from the wild rose in Alberta and we had gone through

00:03:35.680 all sorts of chaos ourselves and people said not yet yeah and they required us to get things

00:03:41.920 together um the party does appear to be more united right now but the leadership race is just

00:03:46.900 heating up yep leadership races are by the very nature divisive they normally not always but they

00:03:52.840 normally come together at the end and people kind of rally behind whoever eventually wins

00:03:57.780 but they are divisive um a lot of what i hear talking to bc conservatives is that the party

00:04:04.240 is still figuring out what it is is it kind of a reboot of the bc liberals so the earlier form of

00:04:11.140 the bc liberals when they were more conservative under say early gordon campbell where you know

00:04:15.420 but it was a the broad yeah um free enterprise coalition is the term normally used was the

00:04:20.360 anybody who's not a crazy socialist so it would include some moderate federal liberals

00:04:24.460 moderate conservatives more hardcore conservatives um that is one vision and the other one being is

00:04:30.980 this a more philosophically robust and populist conservative party? Where do you see this coming

00:04:38.700 out of this as it relates within the leadership race right now? Yeah, I think the beauty of this

00:04:44.320 is that's going to be for the members to decide. And I think right now is you've got leadership

00:04:48.780 candidates that are emerging that are putting forward some of those ideas, some of that vision,

00:04:53.800 and it's really going to be up to those members on how they want to go forward. I myself can tell

00:04:58.540 you is that you know we got to be focused on what's important to british colombians and not

00:05:03.400 compromise the values that we all ran on full stop and i think we can get to a good spot but i can

00:05:08.420 tell you that you know what's important is is that that each leadership because i i honestly

00:05:15.500 like i believe that we are electing the next premier of the province full stop like i believe

00:05:21.220 on may 30th who's ever successful will be the next premier of the province and the members are going

00:05:25.660 to choose who that's going to be. And it's going to be really what their vision is going to be to

00:05:29.980 take forward from there. So the caucus itself, as it was before you became interim leader,

00:05:38.260 is back together. They have one recognized interim leader right now, you. But it's not intact as it

00:05:45.300 was coming out of the last election. As far as I can tell, it's actually still in four pieces.

00:05:49.640 There's the BC Conservative Caucus. There is, I don't remember all the names, but there was one

00:05:54.800 who came from BC United Liberals, who still is an independent, I believe.

00:05:59.440 And then there were the two who went to be a part of 1BC,

00:06:03.600 which are no longer one caucus.

00:06:06.000 I guess keeping a caucus of two together was a little difficult.

00:06:08.760 I call them 2BC now.

00:06:11.320 They're still not there.

00:06:14.820 I know there's personalities involved in these things.

00:06:18.240 There might be legitimate sources of conflict, some maybe less legitimate.

00:06:21.820 um what do you how likely is it that one or more of these people return to the bc conservative fold

00:06:29.960 in the next few months well before the next election yeah and we've had this conversation

00:06:35.200 quite a bit and that's a decision that's up to caucus it's not going to be independently made

00:06:38.940 by me but i can tell you is well i'm asking like you as the interim leader where would you like to

00:06:44.700 see things going knowing that these of course are caucus decisions yeah i i think right now that

00:06:49.200 That's going to have to be a decision that's likely going to be made after the session,

00:06:53.160 is after we have a new leader and that they're having input as well, right?

00:06:57.180 It's not something that I think is going to be done over the next couple of weeks or next couple of months.

00:07:01.580 I'm focused on the people that are in that room.

00:07:04.160 The people that are out of the room, they've made that choice.

00:07:07.040 That's up to them, okay?

00:07:08.540 But I am focused on the people that are currently there.

00:07:10.040 Actually, Russ, that made the choice in some of those cases, I think.

00:07:12.940 Yeah, maybe one or two.

00:07:15.020 Subject for debate.

00:07:15.860 But, you know, at the end of the day, we've got to do what's best for caucus, and that's what I'm focused on.

00:07:21.760 Well, let me put it another way.

00:07:23.800 Do you see it as a desirable goal, if possible, bringing these people back into the BC Conservative Party?

00:07:32.280 Not necessarily.

00:07:33.360 That's, again, and every situation is, like you said, every situation is different, right?

00:07:39.560 We've got five MLAs that have left caucus all in different circumstances over the last year.

00:07:45.860 I fully recognize that.

00:07:48.020 Each of them are different.

00:07:50.440 They represent different areas of the province.

00:07:52.700 They have different interests.

00:07:54.740 And there's different circumstances around each of them.

00:07:57.860 Those are all decisions that caucus is going to have to be unified on

00:08:01.740 before we make a decision on whether one individual is coming back or all of them are.

00:08:07.600 And if they want to come back, by the way, too.

00:08:09.840 That's the other thing.

00:08:10.500 Yes.

00:08:11.820 Certainly, that is a two-way street.

00:08:13.520 Some of them have been quite explicit, saying they don't want to.

00:08:18.360 We'll switch up a bit.

00:08:20.380 Yesterday, the NDP Premier, David Eby, had some interesting remarks.

00:08:25.940 He said that Alberta nationalists are treasonous.

00:08:32.700 That's what got the headlines.

00:08:34.020 But what was more interesting to me was he said they're not Albertans.

00:08:37.440 Alberta nationalists are not Albertans.

00:08:39.400 And that they don't want to be a part of Alberta.

00:08:41.960 now i i as far as i understand alberta has ontario dc has ended its free drug program

00:08:49.800 but is the premier on something well i i think the premier needs to focus uh on his own backyard

00:08:58.480 and he hasn't for a while and we've seen that with the fact that we've got a record

00:09:02.340 setting deficit and then we've got the worst crime that we've ever had we've got an extortion

00:09:06.740 crisis going on our forestry sector has been absolutely decimated um and now you know he's

00:09:12.720 sitting at the kids table when it comes to discussions on a pipeline so the premier can

00:09:16.780 wade into anything he wants that's his prerogative um but at the end of the day uh he's got to be

00:09:22.920 responsible for what we're seeing on the streets of bc and it ain't good i think that and i think

00:09:28.420 he knows that i think part of the problem is he doesn't want to focus on the challenges whether

00:09:32.760 it's DRIPA, whether it's the health care sector, he doesn't want to figure out the fires that

00:09:37.000 are burning at home. So, you know, he's trying to change the channel and we're not going

00:09:40.800 to let him do that.

00:09:41.920 So I know you're not going to be ready for Premier, you're interim Premier, sorry, interim

00:09:47.000 leader. But if you, part of the leader of the, job of the leader of the opposition is

00:09:51.980 providing incredible alternatives and you're the leader of the opposition right now. How

00:09:56.820 would you address um the situation uh you know here we got people from across canada for the

00:10:03.680 conservative party here uh i can't walk 20 steps or so out someone asked me about what's happening

00:10:08.760 with this independence referendum oh my god is this is real is it happening uh it's it's kind

00:10:14.140 of the talk in the air here you just got here but you're you're gonna hear it okay um how would you

00:10:20.180 if you were in the Premier's chair right now, address the almost certainty Alberta is very,

00:10:26.980 very likely to be having a referendum on independence probably by this fall? How would

00:10:32.020 you address this if you were the B.C. Premier right now? With transparency. With transparency,

00:10:37.080 and that's something that we're lacking in B.C., right, is transparency in communicating with the

00:10:41.980 voters. I think that the public has gotten so frustrated with what they're seeing that, you

00:10:48.500 know it's really a struggle and and for me it's it's about full transparency well what do you

00:10:53.520 mean by that um yeah yeah no everybody in public office says we should be transparent but like what

00:10:59.340 is it you would do as premier how would you react to what's taking place in alberta so what do you

00:11:04.500 so ask me about clearly on that so you're asking about what i mean is you know if you are in eb's

00:11:09.920 position right now in the premier's chair yeah and it's now very apparent alberta's likely to

00:11:15.480 be having a vote on independence um dvdb has had his way of responding to that saying this is treason

00:11:21.880 and yeah these people are on team so i guess i yeah you were how would you respond so my response

00:11:27.080 to be very easy is how the hell did we get here right so what's made people get to this point

00:11:31.760 where they're wanting to make that kind of drastic change and that's what i'd be looking at is how

00:11:36.560 did things in bc go so wrong where people are looking at that kind of change all right um well

00:11:44.140 I don't want to talk too much about federal politics

00:11:46.880 but we are at a federal political event

00:11:48.860 here today

00:11:49.360 what's your goal

00:11:53.300 as the interim leader

00:11:54.800 of the BC Conservatives at the National Convention

00:11:57.140 here today

00:11:57.560 this evening is going to be the review of the leadership

00:12:00.920 of Fyukholiev

00:12:01.840 what's your job, what are you trying to achieve on the ground here

00:12:04.120 I'm here to see a lot of good friends

00:12:06.260 I've attended these conventions

00:12:08.440 for the last number of years

00:12:09.460 it's great to catch up, there's a lot of British Columbians

00:12:12.480 I've already seen since I've walked through the doors

00:12:14.400 I've seen most more British Columbians than Albertans here.

00:12:16.280 I know, I know, which is great.

00:12:17.840 But we love coming to Calgary, not just at stampede time.

00:12:20.700 So I think this is great.

00:12:22.040 It's going to be great to catch up.

00:12:22.980 It's going to be great to see Pierre.

00:12:24.400 And I'm wishing him all the success tonight.

00:12:26.680 And I think he's going to keep going.

00:12:29.960 As it relates specifically to British Columbia,

00:12:33.560 what is it you want to hear from Polyev when he speaks this evening?

00:12:37.660 What I want to hear is what he's actually...

00:12:39.040 If you're writing a speech, what do you put in about BC?

00:12:40.740 To be honest, it's pretty much what he has been saying, to be fair, since he's taken on this role,

00:12:48.000 is that when it comes to crime on our streets, making sure that there's consequences for actions,

00:12:55.880 whether it's the disastrous decriminalizations that we've gone through in British Columbia,

00:13:00.320 whether it's the housing crisis, the health care crisis.

00:13:02.860 What he's been saying has been resonating with British Columbians, and we've got to keep going on that.

00:13:07.400 Anything else you want to add?

00:13:08.640 That's it, man. I'm looking forward to it.

00:13:09.820 All right. Well, thank you. And I hope you enjoy your time here in Calgary.

00:13:12.620 Thanks so much, man.

00:13:13.320 Thank you.

Western Standard - January 31, 2026

BC Conservatives ready to take back government

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