Briefly: Rustad not ruffled by testy Eby.
Bob Mackin
Leaders of British Columbia’s big three provincial parties, David Eby (NDP), John Rustad (Conservative) and Sonia Furstenau (Green), were in the same room on Oct. 2 for the first time since the Legislature adjourned last May.
They gathered in the downtown Vancouver studio of CKNW AM 980 for the first of two debates en route to the Oct. 19 election day. This one was also simulcast on Global’s BC1 news channel.
Scroll down for what you need to know:
Fast format
Not a full hour, it started after the 9 a.m. newscast and broke for commercials, with a total run time of just under 50 minutes. Host Mike Smyth did not do as U.S. presidential and vice-presidential debate host broadcasters have done — cut the mic of the leader not speaking. Because of the free debate style, cross-talk and interruption was common and Eby, the incumbent premier, was the main offender. By comparison, who could have predicted that Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, would be better behaved in the previous night’s vice-presidential debate?
Topics included cost of living, healthcare, public safety and toxic drug crisis, Indigenous relations and the negative tone of the campaign.
B.C. leaders Oct. 2 radio debate, clockwise from right: host Mike Smyth, Green Sonia Furstenau, Conservative John Rustad and NDP’s David Eby (CKNW/Global)
Two-against-one
Was it Rustad’s middle seat, the NDP and Greens being closer together on the political spectrum or a bit of both?
Eby and Furstenau took turns on several occasions against Rustad, almost in tag-team fashion. Eby said he agreed with Furstenau more than once. Both Eby and Furstenau suggested that a Rustad government would rely heavily on private companies to deliver healthcare services.
Furstenau, however, seemed to agree with Rustad on one aspect of healthcare management under the NDP when she said: “What we have are doctors not willing to work in a system that is way too heavy on bureaucracy and is not letting it be led by the experts, the health care professionals.”
Cranky versus calm
The NDP stumbled on social media when it tried to cast Rustad as an angry and confused grandpa; he isn’t a grandpa, because his wife Kim went through cervical cancer.
During the debate, it was Eby that came off as irritable and prone to interrupting Rustad. Rustad could have been more energetic and aggressive, but, to his credit, he did not take Eby’s bait. He will need to up his game for next week’s second debate.
Instead, Rustad was often on the defensive, denying Eby’s litany of false claims. Rustad said the Conservatives will not cut billions from healthcare budgets (they’d increase the budgets), the Rustad Rebate will not begin in 2029 (it’s promised for 2026), and will not avoid enforcing laws to stop criminal use of firearms (a Conservative government would still pursue gangsters and gun runners).
The VAIDS Tweet
In the 20th minute, Eby tabled a printout of a Tweet from North Coast-Haida Gwaii Conservative candidate Chris Sankey, a pro-industry former Lax Kw’alaams Band councillor.
On Oct. 4, 2023, Sankey reposted a Tweet about so-called Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
“I just wonder, John, about who’s going to be running our health care system?” Eby asked. “Like I think about my kid, if my kid gets sick, do I want to take them to a hospital that’s run by a government or a cabinet minister who thinks that covid vaccines cause AIDS?”
In a December 2021 fact check, the Associated Press debunked VAIDS.
In a Jan. 30, 2022 post, Sankey actually encouraged people to get vaccinated; he wrote that he had two doses and was waiting for a booster.
What’s more, scientists have found that COVID-19 can have an adverse impact on a patient’s immune system.
Research published by Infection and Drug Resistance in March 2023 under the headline “Emergence of Post COVID-19 Vaccine Autoimmune Diseases: A Single Center Study,” said: “One of the rare adverse events is post vaccine new onset autoimmune diseases.”
In Autoimmune Reviews in July 2023, authors of “Insights into new-onset autoimmune diseases after COVID-19 vaccination,” found “evidence that vaccination induces autoimmunity.” Yet, they concluded that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.
NDP leader David Eby in the Oct. 2 radio debate (CKNW/Global)
A National Institutes of Health-funded study from the journal Cell in August 2023 said severe COVID-19 may lead to long-term innate immune system changes, thus “underscoring vaccine importance.”
Quotable
Eby: “I wouldn’t trust John Rustad to run my Thanksgiving dinner conversation with the family, let alone a hospital where my kids have to be safe, where parents and grandparents have to be safe.”
Furstenau: “You must remember, John Rustad was a cabinet minister in Christy Clark’s government. They keep doing the same thing, election after election. Years later, B.C. ends up in the same place of throwing their hands up in the air.”
Rustad: “People are dying on our streets from drugs. People are dying on our streets from crime. Our healthcare system is collapsing and in crisis. People are having an affordability crisis. Our economy is in shambles. Our resource sector is being destroyed. We’ve got a budget problem. We have so many issues that need to be debated, and David Eby only wants to go negative. And I get that, because he can’t defend his record. He can’t defend what he’s doing, he cannot defend it. So that’s what a weak leader does.”
The second and final debate is Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. on all major B.C. broadcast outlets.
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