In August 2022, BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon attempted to cancel MLA John Rustad by throwing him out of the party caucus for sharing a tweet sceptical of climate change theory. Two years later, Rustad is on the cusp of winning the premier's office, while Falcon is leaving politics.
Backfire of Attempt to Cancel John Rustad Holds a Lesson for All Political Parties | Epoch Times | Cory Morgan:
October 5, 2024 - "People have grown weary of cancel culture tearing down the careers of prominent celebrities and politicians over politically incorrect social media posts. Twitter (now X) has been the prime platform for individuals to self-immolate over innocuous postings.... The nature of the platform creates a minefield as reactionary mobs await with figurative torches and pitchforks for a public persona to offend breaking what they consider acceptable orthodoxy.
BC Liberal MLA John Rustad in 2016.
"Nowhere has cancel culture backfired more magnificently than in the case of BC Conservative Party Leader John Rustad. When Rustad caught the eye of the online outrage mobs due to retweeting what they felt was an inappropriate view, they swarmed,... The offence Rustad committed in August 2022 was to share a tweet by former Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore questioning the role of carbon dioxide in climate change. The action was considered unforgivable by the climate change mobs, and they went nuclear. Rather than defending Rustad or ignoring the mob, Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon felt the best course of action was to eject Rustad from his party’s caucus....
"In February 2023, Rustad joined the Conservative Party of B.C. and by March had assumed the leadership of it. At the time, the party was languishing under 10 percent support in public opinion polls and had no seats in the legislature. People dismissed Rustad as a political has-been taking over a fringe party in an act of sour grapes. They couldn’t have been more wrong.... By October 2023, Rustad’s Conservatives had eclipsed the BC Liberals (now BC United) in the polls and had gained party status in the legislature.
"By August of this year, Rustad’s party had taken such a massive lead over BC United that Falcon announced the party was suspending its campaign, endorsing the Conservatives, and that he was leaving political life....
"Much of what caused the flight of support from the United Party was its participation in hypersensitive cancel culture. The beginning of the end was when BC United banned documentarian Aaron Gunn from running in its leadership race. The finale was the removal of Rustad from the caucus. Party supporters were tired of seeing their party capitulating to the politically correct and the ill-treatment of solid, conservative members. They were ready for a new political home, and Rustad provided it....
"The irony of the attempted cancellation of Rustad is if Falcon had just left things alone, BC United would still be a strong party and could have been in contention to win today. The ejection of Rustad created the political machine that would ultimately swallow the United Party. Politicians should be taking notes.... Voters are exhausted from watching politically motivated character assassinations under the most trivial of circumstances. They are now ready to punish the cancellers.
"If the chattering classes’ hysteria over 11 alleged traitors residing in Canada’s Parliament matched the ink and time dedicated to X postings from politicians or strange things some politician may have said at town hall meetings, perhaps the names of the compromised politicians would have been revealed by now.... People want to see figures held to account for what they are doing here and now. We have a foreign interference crisis in Canada at every level of government. If the social media warriors really want to tear people down for the betterment of the nation, they would be better served dedicating their energy to these corrupted politicians than worrying about old social media statements."
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