BC Conservatives have zero reason to merge with BC United

The former Liberal party’s rebrand has been a failure.
On Friday morning news was quickly lighting up the X-verse that efforts to broker merger talks between BC United and the Conservative Party of BC had been scattered like hundreds of sharp tacks.
Conservative Leader John Rustad, riding high on strong Question Period performances for a caucus of two, torpedoed unification talks among BC’s centre-right political parties.
The news of the rejection came via a news release at 11:00 AM, sent out by United Leader Kevin Falcon and was rapidly shared by his MLAs who are active on Twitter/X. Despite common ground between Conservative and United representatives, John Rustad had rejected “a reasonable offer aimed at preventing a vote split, risking another four years of Eby’s NDP government that will further jeopardize the well-being of this province.” To hear it from Falcon and his MLAs, Rustad cares more about his ambitions for the premier’s chair than splitting the vote and electing a BC NDP government. To hear it from Falcon and his MLAs, Rustad cares more about his ambitions for the premier’s chair than splitting the vote and electing a BC NDP government. The response from Rustad was far more visceral.
“I can say with certainty that the Conservative Party of BC and the BC United Party will not be merging before the upcoming provincial election this fall” started the letter, sent out 50 minutes after Falcon’s.
“Kevin Falcon declined our offers in December 2023 to discuss a possible merger — with a single message stating, and I quote, ‘F#ck Off.’
The anger in Rustad’s comments jumps off the page.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall for some of the conversations between the two over the years.
Source: nationalpost.com