Vaughn Palmer: In 18 months, the Conservative party had come from nowhere to drive an incumbent government to the brink of defeat

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VICTORIA — B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad started his first news conference since losing the election this week on a note of celebration.

The party had elected the first Opposition under its own banner since the 1920s, its first MLA since 1978. In 18 months, they had come from nowhere to drive an incumbent government to the brink of defeat.

“We have done something that nobody has done in Canadian history in such a short period of time,” Rustad told reporters Tuesday.

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The loss still means he and his colleagues are destined for the Opposition benches, something Rustad previously described as an exercise in “frustration”.

Never mind the distance covered. How did the Conservatives fail to close the gap in constituencies (Vancouver-Yaletown and Langara, Vernon, the Nanaimo region) that their own organizers regarded as winnable?

“There’s an old saying in politics that you don’t lose elections, you run out of time,” said Rustad. “We needed more time to build a connection, particularly with those people in the province that may not have........

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