KRUGGEL: Do you want to win an election or be ideologically pure? You can't have both.

The biggest problem grassroots parties have, by the way that's a dumb term, is an adherence to ideological purity.  

First, grassroots a dumb term and that is important. 

Every party maintains a connection to their local constituents. That's where the volunteers and money comes from. As parties grow some members feel that the party has moved away from its grassroots. 

That's false. 

As parties grow they become more diverse. Those people that join the party become part of the grassroots. The founders of the party don't get to keep the term grassroots to themselves and they aren't special.

Second, let's talk about ideological purity. The BC Conservatives started out as a right wing party. They were far more rural and northern than they were southern and urban. When the BC Liberals rebranded into BC United, and then collapsed that voter base moved en masse to the BC Conservatives.
  
The problem for the BC Conservatives is that that voter base was more southern and urban than northern and rural. They were just as fiscally conservative in most cases and equally pro-business. They were not however socially conservative.  

Ideological purity is what some of the original party membership wants. They want the party to remain right wing both fiscally and socially. We could list off issues they don't like, which include SOGI 123, climate change, transgender rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, among others. The vast majority of those ex-BC Liberals support that stuff.  

Now we have the battle for the soul of the BC Conservatives. I think that's a battle those demanding social conservatism should give up.  

The reason is simple: no socially conservative party has won an election in Canada in generations. I don't even think the United Conservative Party or the Saskatchewan Party count as socially conservative as they do not oppose things like abortion on demand, gender pay equality and regulations, school board independence, or Charter Rights including things like same-sex marriage. Both of those parties figured out where the draw the line.

If one wants to win a provincial or federal election in Canada you have to be a big tent party and you have to be socially progressive. If one's party leans too far to the right socially they are guaranteed to lose elections they had a legitimate shot of winning.  

For the BC Conservatives they are at a cross roads: do they grow and moderate or do they regress and remain pure? If they choose the latter they will fade away over time as another centre-right party takes their place. Centre BC already out there looking to fill that spot.  

What about the voters? What do they want? 

Well, last election people wanted a right leaning party that would oust the NDP. David Eby was popular, but his party wasn't really popular. In fact, over the course of 2024 the NDP very slowly lost support and people wanted change.  

The BC Conservatives had all the momentum, but saw it dulled in the final two weeks of the election as their own dirty laundry was aired. Members voicing anti-vaccine positions, some made posts that were homophobic, some questioned if some US mass shootings were real, and let's not forget the racist comments made by one candidate where First Nations people were called savages.

A party that has members running for office holding those views or in public view as staff is going to lose public support in droves in British Columbia.

Consider the following example: "What's the biggest series of summer events in British Columbia today?" 

Pride. 

The attendance is enormous in almost every community where one is held and that's in most larger communities. If the BC Conservative's want to win an election with a majority government they have to win cities like Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey, Richmond, West Vancouver, Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo, and so forth. All of those cities, are very LGBTQ+ friendly and they vote that way.

You cannot win a big majority government if your party mobilizes the other side more effectively than is mobilizes its own side.  

This is what the BC Liberals under Gordon Campbell understood. They let the BC Liberal tent grow as big as it could and they won 4 large majority governments.  

The BC Conservatives need to understand that less.

Who should win the battle for their soul? The side that wants to win an election and be a mature political party that is serious about governing a province that is as diverse as British Columbia.

John Rustad understands this.