Several Conservative Party candidates running in the B.C. election have spent years spreading climate conspiracy theories online, highlighting the extent to which climate misinformation infiltrates the party.
The social media clips were compiled in a document tracing the social media history of Conservative Party of B.C. candidates and posted to X last week. It reveals widespread support among candidates for debunked right-wing conspiracy theories, from the false claim that climate change is an authoritarian plot by shadowy elites to the debunked idea Canada's record-breaking wildfires were set by arsonists.
John Rustad, the party's leader, has long downplayed the impacts of climate change, going so far as to question its existence. While he backed off from that stance in the leadup to the provincial election, he maintains the problem "is not at a crisis level," telling CBC earlier this month that "there are many things that are far more important."
"[These] weird, scary, bizarre and dangerous tweets and posts and comments from John Rustad and his candidates are deeply, deeply concerning," Ravi Parmar, the B.C. NDP candidate for Highlands-Langford said in an interview. "This all starts with John Rustad…if he wants to be premier of this province, he needs to be held accountable."
Posts in the document show several candidates repeating common climate conspiracy theories rooted in so-called "climate authoritarianism," which is the false idea that climate policies and disasters are designed to control people, not tackle an existential crisis. They include false claims that supposed arsonists — like the CBC and Unifor — deliberately set B.C.'s 2023 wildfires; that "there is no climate emergency" and any efforts to tackle the problem are "alarmism"; and that climate activists are "dangerous to health."
Beyond Rustad, whose history of climate skepticism and conspiratorial thinking is well-documented, the most prominent climate skeptics on the list include:
- Chris Sankey, candidate for the North Coast-Haida Gwaii. Sankey is an oil and gas industry consultant, and last year made several posts on X repeating the false conspiracy theory B.C.'s wildfires were started by arsonists. He attacked the mainstream media for not covering the conspiracies and posted the false claim that the World Economic Forum is trying to "depopulate" the planet with climate policies.
- He also repeatedly attacked former federal environment minister Catherine McKenna for her climate action, going so far as to threaten her with a "world of pain." Screenshots of these Tweets are in the document posted to X, but it now appears to have been deleted from the platform.
- Paul Ratchford, candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey. A former investment banker, Ratchford also repeated false conspiracy theories that wildfires were set by arsonists. He posted that "pro carbon is pro humanity" and calls climate activists "cultists." The document posted to X contains screenshots of the posts, but they now appear to have been deleted from the platform.
- John Koury, candidate for Cowichan Valley. Koury is a career businessman and falsely claimed on X that B.C.'s wildfires were started intentionally by the CBC and labour union UNIFOR. He also reposted a tweet that suggested the media were not covering a protest by German farmers over climate policies, in order to prevent people from hearing about them. But the original post was misleading — the images it contained were from an earlier event and the protest had not yet happened when it was posted. (They were covered extensively.)
- Marina Sapozhnikov, candidate for Juan de Fuca-Malahat. Sapozhnikov is a doctor; she posted on X the false claim that "there is no climate emergency." She minimized concerns about excessive greenhouse gas emissions by saying that "CO2 is plant food" — falsely suggesting that the current, excessive concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere are not a threat — and that extreme cold is more dangerous than extreme heat. Extreme heat killed 619 people in B.C. during the 2021 heat dome.
Canada's National Observer reached out to the four candidates and the Conservative Party of B.C. None responded to a request for comment.
Should the Conservative Party of B.C. win in the next election, it would put people who have embraced false conspiracy theories and climate skepticism in a position to control the province's response to major problems like wildfires and the climate crisis, Parmar emphasized.
He also slammed Rustad's decision to run candidates who were eager to amplify conspiracy theories about the province's record-breaking 2023 wildfires being set by arsonists. Very few of Canada's wildfires are deliberately set — most are caused by lightning or human error — and suggesting otherwise "is offensive to all the communities in British Columbia that have been fighting wildfires,” Parmar said.
PressProgress reported Friday that candidates have also embraced conspiracy theories unrelated to climate change, on topics from the January 6 insurrection to ideas about the New World Order and 15-minute cities.
When asked about the leak by a reporter during a campaign stop Saturday, Rustad said he is confident in his candidates and that the B.C. legislature needs "fresh people" who "stand up, say things and be themselves."
Comments
Conservatives, in bed with the oil & gas industry at all levels. A wolf in sheep's clothing and not to be trusted with important matters in any province or at the federal level.
There are two issues with the BC NDP that I vehemently disagree with. One is LNG, the other is old growth logging.
Regarding LNG, premier David Eby may be in a bit of a pickle with, as a former cabinet minister demonstrating cabinet solidarity, supporting former leader Horgan's full scale jump into it, and trying to mitigate his own slightly waning support. Eby is a rights lawyer, not a hardcore industrial union alumnus. Perhaps the best political compromise is to leave LNG to its own fate by pulling out of any further subsidies and other supports.
The emerging hard evidence is that expensive BC LNG is doomed because renewables are already killing fossil fuel demand in Asia and Europe. By the early 2030s BC will have to take its losses on LNG and move on, and redirect Site C power into the regular domestic economy and new green industry.
On logging old growth, there is no excuse. The NDP will have to one day risk losing a swath of forestry industry support in exchange for environmentally-oriented support from voters to stop issuing licences in old growrh areas, and hopefully append a ban on exporting raw logs while beefing up support for value added wood products and better conservation.
On health care, the BC NDP with Adrian Dix as minister in partnership with Dr. Bonnie Henry had one of the best pandemic performances in the country. They saved thousands of lives by relying on the science as it was evolving.
Rustad's Conservatives will have none of that and will contaminate the discourse with stupid and dangerous conspiracies while hacking and slashing at social programs and transferring the savings to corporate pillagers.
In this election there is no choice but to vote for the NDP, warts and all. Those who seek to punish them over single issues like old growth logging are not critical thinkers and care not to give much thought to what the BC Conservatives will do if they win.
Would have been good to put your last paragraph first. The warts on the NDP pale by comparison to the fangs on Rustad and co.
LNG and old growth logging. That is why I am voting Green.
Would be great if they had any chance to govern. But the NDP was their last dancing partner and they tango'd right off to the sidelines. This is not the German Greens who are mature enough to form genuine coalition governments with s
...senior cabinet posts and big responsibilities. As it stands today the BC Greens will only harvest a few votes from the NDP because most progressives don't want to risk splitting the vote and seeing Rustad ascend to the throne.
In other words, thinking critically.
Conservatives spreading climate change MISINFORMATION! I don't believe that could possibly be true. And have been spreading it for years on social media! How could Conservatives in Canada and particularly in BC be doing that and now are running for fir MLA seats in BC? I mean Pierre Poilievre, Daniel Smith , Rustad, Moe, Higgs and Ford are totally committed to mitigating climate change, just not before 2100, not in this century. Conservatives have these secret policies that are so secret, no one has heard about them.
I just found out I do have a Green Party candidate in Surrey Fleetwood. Tim Binnema. I will be voting for him.