Image: Heather Maahs / Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad, shown here with Chilliwack North MLA candidate Heather Maahs, will visit Chilliwack this Friday, June 7 for a free meet-and-greet event.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad to visit Chilliwack this week; free event is open to the public

Jun 4, 2024 | 8:52 AM

CHILLIWACK — Fresh off a week in which two more MLAs joined his party by defecting from BC United, Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad will visit Chilliwack for a two-hour meet and greet later this week.

Rustad is set to meet Chilliwack-area constituents this Friday, June 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Atchelitz Hall, 6542 Lickman Road, in Chilliwack. The event is free and open to the public. There will be coffee and cookies served.

He’ll be joined by Conservative candidates Heather Maahs of Chilliwack North and Aaliya Warbus of Chilliwack-Cultus Lake. Maahs’s opponents in the provincial election consist of NDP MLA Dan Coulter and BC United candidate Dr. David Moniz, while Warbus will compete against NDP MLA Kelli Paddon and BC United candidate Sue Attrill Knott.

Rustad has a lot at stake as he visits Chilliwack. Repeated polling shows the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservatives neck in neck with each other outside of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver. While the B.C. NDP maintain a steady province-wide margin over the Conservatives in the latest Angus poll, it’s a much closer race in the Fraser Valley.

Rustad has been riding high ever since MLA Lorne Doerkson, representing Cariboo-Chilcotin in the Interior, and Surrey South MLA Elenore Sturko switched parties and joined the B.C. Conservatives. Doerkson made his announcement last Friday, May 31, while Sturko defected Monday, June 3. Their defections brings the number of Conservative members in the legislature to four.

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According to a story from the Canadian Press, the Conservatives rejected a proposal last month from B.C. United to create a “non-competition” agreement, with Conservative Leader John Rustad and BC United Leader Kevin Falcon blaming each other for the talks’ collapse.

Sturko says in her statement that it’s easy to ignore the polls, but it is impossible to dismiss what she’s hearing when she’s talking to voters.

Sturko says she doesn’t believe the New Democrat government deserves to win the next election, but when the vote is split between the BC United and Conservative parties, they are handing the NDP victory.