John Rustad had the most to win in the TV leaders’ debate — a solid, likeable, measured performance could have helped the BC Conservative leader neutralize weeks of attacks against his character and shown undecided voters there’s nothing to fear from electing him premier.

That didn’t happen.

A miserable-looking Rustad, who barely cracked a single smile over the entire 90-minute event, failed to rise to the moment.

He stared off into the distance, refusing to make eye contact with his opponents. He didn’t look into the camera to speak directly to voters at home. He delivered monotone answers, absent the passion and emotion you’d expect from someone whipping up a change movement built upon public anger. His makeup gave him the pallor of a cadaver.

If he had prepared any new lines to use against David Eby, to help prosecute a seven-year record of NDP government, he must have forgotten them. At times, he looked nervous. At other times, he looked like an android someone had turned off.

“As a government, Conservatives will be laser-focused on people,” said Rustad. OK.

Rustad seemed to peak early in the debate, with an anecdote about passing a person who had died of an overdose on his way to the debate.

“This is the British Columbia David Eby has created,” he........

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