John Rustad’s long-sought resignation Thursday as BC Conservative leader marks the end of one of the strangest chapters in modern British Columbia politics, defined less by coherent conservative renewal than by the chaotic narrowing of a party’s purpose.

Rustad, you will remember, was booted from the BC United Party three years ago and inherited a fringe vehicle—the largely idled BC Conservatives—that suddenly found itself with oxygen, polling strength and real strategic opportunity. Part of it was him, part of it was Pierre Poilievre’s coattail, part of it was the BC NDP’s follies. He even got the last laugh on the party that dispatched him, in dispatching them during last year’s election campaign.

The dispatcher is again the dispatched, so close last year to the premier’s job and so far today from it. His full-circle journey returns him to the rather forlorn MLA role he not so long ago occupied.

He leaves behind a movement that squandered its opening, exhausted its relevance and cost the province something it has not had in more than a decade: a credible, modern, centre-right alternative capable of challenging government on the issues that matter most.

Political leadership is not just about message, but about allocating attention. And Rustad consistently allocated it poorly. At a time when British Columbians were clamouring for relief from soaring housing costs, spiralling health-care delays, infrastructure shortfalls and a public safety system struggling to keep up with mental health and addiction crises,........

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