BC Conservatives Scrub Right-Wing Culture War Policies, Rhetoric From Platform Posted on Party’s Website

John Rustad’s Conservative Party of BC quietly scrubbed large sections of their website’s policy page in the middle of the first week of BC’s provincial election.

Last week, the BC Conservatives made extensive revisions to the “Our Ideas” page of their website, a section listing the party’s policies, positions and promises.

Archived copies of the website show the BC Conservatives replaced its original platform with a scaled down version that outright removed sections on big issues like education, law and order, homelessness and drug policy.

The original version of the platform was replaced after writs were issued on September 21. According to the Wayback Machine, the platform that appears on September 23 is different from the one that appeared days later on September 27.

The removed sections, which comprise nearly half the BC Conservatives’ original online platform, included specific promises to “oppose identity politics,” remove “ideology” from classrooms and a pledge to protect monuments honouring colonial figures.

Many items removed from the party’s “Our Ideas” section pushed right-wing culture war talking points seemingly designed to appeal to the party’s far-right and social conservative base of supporters.

For example, while the new page that currently appears on the BC Conservative website makes no mention of an education curriculum overhaul or any mention of education policy at all, the BC Conservatives had previously promised big changes are coming to the province’s schools only a little over a week ago.

Policies and promises removed from BC Conservative platform (September 23, 2024)

“Political bias and ideology have no place in BC’s education curriculum and must be removed immediately,” the original platform states, using language similar to that of the United Conservative Party in Alberta to justify its curriculum rewrite.

Rustad himself explained his intention to remove books from the school system during a recent interview with right wing commentator Jordan Peterson. Rustad said: “What is needed, to start with, is we need to do a full review of all the material that’s being made available for teachers and look at it from the perspective of being neutral.”

The section went on to threaten universities with defunding for failing to protect “free speech on campus” – language mirroring a similar policy from Ontario Premier Doug Ford in 2018, which set out to create a safe space for anti-abortion activists and far-right speakers.

Wading deeper into right-wing culture war talking points, another section titled “Culture and Freedom” promises to go after “identity politics,” though the party does not elaborate on how it plans to do that.

The same section also gives a nod to Freedom Convoy supporters with blurbs opposing vaccine passports and the protection and preservation of “not perfect” parts of Canadian history, including certain statues.

Policies and promises removed from BC Conservative platform (September 23, 2024)

Another item scrubbed from the party’s online platform is a section with hardline rhetoric around drug policy, homelessness and policing.

The newly updated policy page lacks any mention of these issues, though they previously took hard stances on supporting higher police budgets, reversing the decriminalization of drug use, forced rehabilitation and more incarceration under a “zero tolerance” policy.

Policies and promises removed from BC Conservative platform (September 23, 2024)

The BC Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment from PressProgress.