Former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad says he was “furious” to learn that B.C. United was behind a website calling for him to be ousted before the 2024 provincial election.

Elections B.C. fined the party this week $4,500 for “transmitting a false statement to affect election results” related to a website and a mail out that targeted Rustad and Richmond MLA Teresa Wat, who had defected from B.C. United to the Conservatives.

Rustad said in an interview Thursday that B.C. United under leader Kevin Falcon had “intentionally” undermined efforts to defeat the NDP with the website, which was set up in August 2024 and was falsely purported at the time to be the work of dissatisfied Conservatives.

“It’s incredibly machiavellian. It’s plain and simple,” Rustad said. 

“He had one goal and one goal in mind, which is he wasn’t going to become premier, so he’s going to make sure that the Conservatives couldn’t win,” he said of Falcon, who stood alongside Rustad on Aug. 28, 2024, to announce that B.C. United was folding its campaign and throwing its support behind the Conservatives.

Rustad posted on X Thursday that he believed the “dirty trick” of the website, “firejohnrustad.ca,” suppressed voter turnout and may have cost the Conservatives victory. 

Elections B.C. revealed this week that its investigators found the website was not operated by disgruntled Conservatives, as it claimed, but was orchestrated by B.C. United campaign officials, who hired an Alberta political operative’s firm called Sovereign North Strategies Inc.

B.C. United has been politically inactive since Falcon halted its 2024 campaign, amid plunging poll numbers, but it has not yet been disbanded.

Elections B.C. said evidence confirms the website and mail out were organized by B.C. United’s campaign manager, who it did not name but who was Mark Werner at the time, now managing the campaign of Conservative leadership contender Peter Milobar.

Milobar said in an interview Thursday that learning of the Elections B.C. penalty and investigation “took me by surprise,” and he talked to Werner afterwards. 

“He assures me he did not know that there was an investigation, did not know that there was any connection to the B.C. United campaign or anyone that was working with him or for him,” Milobar said. 

Milobar said he wasn’t involved in the B.C. United campaign at a high level at the time, and “Mark would have to answer those more detailed questions because I just don’t have the answers to it.”

Elections B.C. said the mail out falsely accused Wat of offences under the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act. 

The website was set up in August 2024, weeks before B.C. United folded its campaign.

Like Elections B.C., Rustad’s post on X didn’t name Werner, but he said Milobar’s campaign manager was “in the middle of this betrayal.”

Elections B.C. said its investigators reached out to B.C. United’s campaign manager “through several methods of contact,” but he did not reply. 

Rustad said it’s unlikely Falcon was unaware of what his senior campaign officials were doing. 

“When you’re leading a party, you sit down with your campaign manager on a regular basis and you talk about everything. Everything that goes on, everything that they’re doing. This conversation would have gone on and it would have raised to Kevin Falcon’s level,” he said. 

Rustad also singled out B.C. United’s former vice-president Caroline Elliott, who is also vying for the Conservative leadership, saying she “wants to take over” the party. 

Elliott is Falcon’s sister-in-law, and Rustad said he’s heard that Falcon has been reaching out behind the scenes urging people to support her in the Conservative leadership race. 

Current B.C. United president Ben Stewart said in an interview Thursday that the activities at the heart of Elections B.C.’s investigation happened before he took the position.

He said the party executive only learned of the penalty when Elections B.C. released details on Wednesday, and they’ll be meeting to discuss a possible appeal of the penalty. 

Elections B.C. says the B.C. United deputy campaign manager — who it doesn’t name but who was Adam Wilson at the time — was also involved in commissioning the work by Sovereign North Strategies

“They knowingly basically went ahead and did, something that was conniving and it really shouldn’t have gone on,” Stewart said.

Neither Werner, Wilson nor Sovereign North’s Cameron Davies, who is now president of the separatist Alberta Republican party, could be reached for comment Thursday. 

CBC has also reached out to Werner for comment.