BC Conservative Leader John Rustad was reflective when asked this week how he could have gotten his party over the finish line to a 47-seat majority in the provincial election campaign, rather than a 44-seat opposition.

“Well, I think there's an old saying in politics that you don't lose elections, you run out of time,” he said.

Inside the Conservative campaign, time and money proved lacking at key moments.

The Conservatives did not get a $5-million bank loan to fund their campaign until hours after BC United Leader Kevin Falcon announced he was suspending his efforts and throwing his support to the Conservatives on Aug. 28.

It meant a scramble.

Among the things that couldn’t be pulled together in time — one million bifold leaflets with hyperlocal targeted messages about issues like SOGI, forestry and vote splitting — in key ridings like Surrey-Guildford, Surrey City Centre, Vernon-Lumby, and Richmond-Steveston.

The Conservatives lost all those ridings. The leaflets in some cases arrived two days after the Oct. 19 election day.

Would they have made a big difference? Probably not. Though in Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP flipped the riding by 27 votes, who knows. It was an example, though, of a party not being able to get the desired resources to critical areas.

Falcon’s decision to shutter BC United’s election campaign to prevent a centre-right vote split also came too late, said Rustad.

“It would have been great if that........

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