BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau slammed BC Conservative Leader John Rustad for backing out of the CHEK News and Surrey Board of Trade leaders’ debates. “This is a worrying trend for someone who wants to lead BC, but is not willing to show up and answer questions,” she added.

Furstenau said in a statement: “If he really has ‘common sense’ answers to our province’s problems, answering debate questions should be easy for him. Instead he is showing British Columbians that he’s not interested in being held accountable for the policies he is proposing, or for his flip-flopping statements and positions on carbon pricing, vaccines, and climate change.

“If Rustad can’t show up to debates he committed to, how can he be trusted to address BC’s biggest challenges? This continues the trend we saw in the BC Legislature this last spring, when Rustad left the legislature as soon as Question Period was over, and failed to participate in the work he was elected to do as an MLA.

“Leaders should stand up for their vision for BC, and for the policies they are proposing. I look forward to seeing [Premier] David Eby in Surrey to discuss and debate the issues that matter to British Columbians.”