VANCOUVER—Seventy years after the B.C. Conservative Party last governed the province, the Tories continue to garner less than five per cent of the vote and sometimes even a fraction of that.

But on Monday, the once-mighty provincial party—the first to form a provincial government in 1903—elected a new leader who insists he has the chops and ideas to turn the rump party’s flagging fortunes around.

“We’re ready for the hard work it’s going to take to make this party great, because they’ve struggled for a long time to find themselves, where they fit in the province, and get a foothold,” Trevor Bolin said in an interview Tuesday,

Bolin, a 39-year-old former real-estate businessman and Fort St. John city councillor, is plowing the same right-leaning electoral fields as the B.C. Liberals.

B.C.’s Liberal Party, like the B.C. Conservatives, is legally separate from its federal counterpart, and far to the right of federal Liberals. Today’s B.C. Liberals are the latest incarnation of decades of coalitions between “free enterprise” forces that united to keep the left-wing NDP out of power.

Over the past decade, federal Tories have often stumped for B.C. Liberals at election time, and against their own provincial counterparts.

And that has been the biggest obstacle to restoring the B.C. Conservative brand to its former glory.

“It has hurt our party in the past,” Bolin admitted.

His party wants to stake its turf by opposing the stances taken by all three parties, particularly the Liberal, NDP and Greens’ support for a carbon tax, which was first introduced to North America by former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell. On April 1, the federal Liberals introduced it nationally.

Asked if he believes in climate change, Bolin said he did, but not the mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He believes encouraging the liquefied natural gas sector would be a better way of achieving reductions.

“What percentage of it is human-caused or natural is a discussion we see happening every day — we have world-renowned scientists split on that position,” he said. “I’m not a scientist, but some of it is from human causes, some of it is neutral or natural.

“But we need to change the ways we operate and live to be better citizens on Earth, but it starts locally, not on a global or national scale.”

Although the provincial and federal Conservatives are separate entities — other than the Conservative Party of Canada’s constitutional requirement to “maintain relationships with provincial conservative parties,” including extending convention voting powers to provincial Tory leaders — Bolin said he’s increasingly found common ground with Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer.

“We’ve started to see a lot more similarities between the B.C. Conservatives and the federal party,” Bolin noted. “Andrew Scheer came out against the national carbon tax, and we of course are against the provincial and national ones.”

Asked about the rise of populist movements, some to the right of Scheer’s party, such as the Yellow Vests and the People’s Party of Canada, Bolin said they’re a symptom of a “more robust conversation” in Canadian politics today.

“You start to see different groups form and congregating. That’s a clear indication of people being unhappy both with government and how the country is being run,” he said. “And people are coming together to look for smaller government and more of a voice of the people than a party pushing its platform.

“People just want to be represented at a grassroots base.”

Bolin knows it will be “hard work,” a slog even.

But he believes the party’s best chance is to capitalize on the rising sense of anger at “big government” represented by all the other major parties, and the upsurge in grassroots populism.

“That’s where a lot of parties who governed for many decades, or currently, that have started to forget to listen to British Columbians,” he said. “I have nothing against any parties … But which one is going to represent your needs as a British Columbian and take them seriously — not because of large donors or special interest groups?”

His party, however, has fallen far since it was founded in 1900 under the province’s new party-based system.

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And last year marked 40 years since a Tory was actually elected in B.C. — Victor Stephens, for Oak Bay, in 1978.

The party has floundered ever since, never exceeding five per cent of the popular vote province-wide. In 2017, B.C. Conservatives only got a meagre half per cent of the provincial vote, and that wasn’t even their worst showing, with the party dipping to fringe status in 1991 when it got just .03 per cent.

The last time a Conservative held a seat in the B.C. Legislature was a brief six-month stint when Liberal MLA John van Dongen crossed the floor; within the year, he’d opted to be an independent.

He was one of a string of MLAs who briefly bolstered the Conservative House ranks by leaving other parties — NDP, Liberal and Social Credit alike.

But there have been high points. Former party leader John Cummins, a long-time federal Tory MP, swelled the party’s popular vote to nearly five per cent — representing a not-insignificant 85,783 ballots across the province in 2013.

“The biggest issue for B.C. Conservatives was trying to raise financing,” Cummins said in a phone interview. “People who might have supported us were so afraid the NDP would get elected, it was very, very difficult to raise funds to fight the battle.

“But the B.C. Liberals didn’t provide the kind of responsible government people expected them to. By supporting the B.C. Liberals, the federal Conservatives are legitimizing the Liberal brand for no good reason.”

The party’s best showing in the 2017 election was in Courtenay-Comox, where they neared eight per cent in a riding that swung from B.C. Liberal to NDP, and in the B.C. Liberal stronghold of Kelowna-Mission, where the Tory candidate exceeded seven per cent, but still trailed behind both NDP and Greens.

In 2013, Tories fared much better, garnering 27 per cent of the vote in Peace River South, another B.C. Liberal stronghold, putting them in second place. That year also saw Conservative candidates surpass one-tenth of the ballots in 13 of the province’s ridings.

“If I were to use a metaphor, I’d say the phoenix,” Bolin said. “The party has been successful before — it was the first governing party in the province of B.C. — but they’ve been through some tough times.

“As the need for a conservative, small government got stronger, that phoenix started to grow. I think it’s now at point today when it can rise from the ashes.”

For former leader Cummins, the phoenix metaphor is apt as Bolin takes the reins.

“When I met Trevor, I was quite impressed. He’s a sharp guy, well organized, and has a business background, which is what the party needs,” Cummins said. “The choice between the B.C. Liberals and the NDP is a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

“Sooner or later, with the right leader, I think the B.C. Conservatives can rise from the ashes.”

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