COLLINS: John Rustad’s big gamble
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HIDEBOUND LEADER JOHN RUSTAD has made some tough calls in the few short months since his Conservative mandate became public. He destroyed Kevin Falcon’s BC United Party — although the Falcon himself played a large part in that destruction — fine-tuned his candidate list to allow a handful of United MLAs to run in some ridings and took a huge gamble that it would all work out.
Let’s look at a few things. Some in Rustad’s list of candidates were not top-flight choices, but he couldn’t arbitrarily toss them under the bus because they were keys to getting the party up and running. And yet, he allowed some former United MLAs to run, including Peter Milobar in Kamloops Centre.
Milobar was a no-brainer. He’s the best opposition MLA, bar none. Rustad paid homage to that fact by appointing Milobar to the major critic role watching over the province’s finances.
Ward Stamer was handed the critic’s role covering the forest industry. The Kamloops-North Thompson MLA will be busy keeping track of an industry that needs a major reboot to survive.
