Rustad says ‘dirty trick’ by BC United may have cost Conservatives election victory

Former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad says he was “furious” to learn that BC United was behind a website calling for him to be ousted before the 2024 provincial election.

Elections BC fined the party this week $4,500 for “transmitting a false statement to affect election results” related to a website and a mail out that targeted Rustad and Richmond MLA Teresa Wat, who had defected from BC United to the Conservatives.

Rustad said in an interview Thursday that BC United under leader Kevin Falcon had “intentionally” undermined efforts to defeat the NDP with the website, which was set up in August 2024 and was falsely purported at the time to be the work of dissatisfied Conservatives.

“It’s incredibly machiavellian. It’s plain and simple,” Rustad said.

“He had one goal and one goal in mind, which is he wasn’t going to become premier, so he’s going to make sure that the Conservatives couldn’t win,” he said of Falcon, who stood alongside Rustad on Aug. 28, 2024, to announce that BC United was folding its campaign and throwing its support behind the Conservatives.

Rustad posted on X Thursday that he believed the “dirty trick” of the website, “firejohnrustad.ca,” suppressed voter turnout and may have cost the Conservatives victory.

Elections BC revealed this week that its investigators found the website was not operated by disgruntled Conservatives, as it claimed, but was orchestrated by BC United campaign officials, who hired an Alberta political operative’s firm called Sovereign North Strategies Inc.

BC United has been politically inactive since Falcon halted its 2024 campaign, amid plunging poll numbers, but it has not yet been disbanded.

Elections BC said evidence confirms the website and mail out were organized by BC United’s campaign manager, who it did not name, but who was Mark Werner, now managing the campaign of Conservative leadership contender Peter Milobar.

Milobar said in an interview Thursday that learning of the Elections BC penalty and investigation “took me by surprise,” and he talked to Werner afterwards.

“He assures me he did not know that there was an investigation, did not know that there was any connection to the BC United campaign or anyone that was working with him or for him,” Milobar said.

Milobar said he wasn’t involved in the BC United campaign at a high level at the time, and “Mark would have to answer those more detailed questions because I just don’t have the answers to it.”

Milobar posted an official statement online later Thursday that said Werner “confirmed that he had no knowledge of this website,” and also condemned the “horrendous allegation” made against Wat.

Elections BC said the mail out falsely accused Wat of offences under the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act.

The website was set up in August 2024, weeks before BC United folded its campaign.

Like Elections BC, Rustad’s post on X didn’t name Werner, but he said Milobar’s campaign manager was “in the middle of this betrayal.”

Elections BC said its investigators reached out to BC United’s campaign manager “through several methods of contact,” but he did not reply.

Rustad said it’s unlikely Falcon was unaware of what his senior campaign officials were doing.

“When you’re leading a party, you sit down with your campaign manager on a regular basis and you talk about everything. Everything that goes on, everything that they’re doing. This conversation would have gone on and it would have raised to Kevin Falcon’s level,” he said.

“When Kevin sat down with me during our very brief negotiation to bring this to an end, there is no indication from him whatsoever that anything like this was going on.”

Rustad also singled out BC United’s former vice-president Caroline Elliott, who is also vying for the Conservative leadership, saying she “wants to take over” the party.

Elliott is Falcon’s sister-in-law, and Rustad said he’s heard that Falcon has been reaching out behind the scenes urging people to support her in the Conservative leadership race.

Current BC United president Ben Stewart said in an interview Thursday that the activities at the heart of Elections BC’s investigation happened before he took the position.

He said Werner was told by the party executive and financial agent not to spend any more party money in August 2024, “but he chose to ignore that.”

He said the party executive only learned of the penalty when Elections BC released details on Wednesday, and they’ll be meeting to discuss a possible appeal of the penalty.

He said they’re “unhappy” that the party’s campaign workers, Werner and his deputy, had gone to such lengths.

Elections BC says the BC United deputy campaign manager — who it doesn’t name but who was Adam Wilson — was also involved in commissioning the work by Sovereign North Strategies

“They knowingly basically went ahead and did, something that was conniving and it really shouldn’t have gone on,” Stewart said.

“That’s not the way that the B.C. Liberal party or BC United operates,” he said, referring to the party by its former and current names.

“But at the end of the day, the party’s being held responsible because they had a contract with us, Sovereign North.”

Neither Werner, Wilson nor Sovereign North’s Cameron Davies, who is now president of the separatist Alberta Republican party, could be reached for comment Thursday.

Rustad said the issue “unfortunately taints” the current leadership race for the Conservative party, but its future is in members’ hands.

Six candidates are vying for the leadership and the result will be announced on May 30.

“It’s incredibly important that we get a leader in there that is going to be focused on British Columbia and is doing things for the right reasons,” he said.

“You’ve got some evidence that one, possibly two, of the people running for this leadership campaign are not really putting British Columbia first, and it’ll be up to the members of the party to decide if that’s what they want, but it’s certainly not my preference.”

“Hopefully, like I say, we’ll be in a situation where we have a leader come forward that is clean of all that kind of nonsense,” Rustad said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2026.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press