After a week of recriminations , the two leading figures on British Columbia’s fractured right — BC United leader Kevin Falcon and BC Conservative leader John Rustad — are set to share the stage on Thursday at the inaugural PROSPER Symposium in Vancouver, an event organized by the U.S.-based Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions.
The political arch-rivals are scheduled to deliver duelling keynote speeches at the symposium, which, per its tagline, seeks to foster “a climate of prevention (and) a culture of recovery” in a province that has become the epicentre of Canada’s drug crisis. The two men will be joined by Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, who will give the conference’s opening remarks. Interestingly, word broke earlier this month that West had been approached by a group of business leaders about leading a merged BC United–BC Conservative Party.
The PROSPER Symposium’s all-star political lineup shows just how hot a topic drug policy is in B.C.: a province that just last year launched a radical experiment with the decriminalization of hard drugs.
The public’s growing impatience with the province’s drug crisis augurs poorly for NDP Premier David Eby, even as B.C.’s divided right could give him an easy path to victory in this October’s political election.
A survey of 803 British Columbians taken last week by One Persuasion found that just six per cent of residents “strongly approve” of the Eby government’s record on drugs and addiction. Provinc.
