New BC Conservatives candidate in Kelowna says he was also approached by BC NDP

Former BC Liberals leadership candidate Gavin Dew has said he was approached by the BC NDP before he decided to make the switch to the BC Conservatives.

Dew announced his move to the BC Conservatives on Aug. 14 when the party revealed it had selected him as its candidate for the Kelowna–Mission riding.

But Dew, a businessman who reached the third ballot in the 2021-22 BC Liberal leadership election, said BC Conservatives leader John Rustad had already approached him “a number of times” over the last two years.

“Look, even the NDP approached me,” he told NowMedia video host Jim Csek during a wide-ranging interview.

“I think that the reason why that was the case is that I do have a track record and a history of being involved in politics and of being successful at bringing in the next generation, being successful at building that bridge with the business community, with the next generation.”

He said ditching BC United – as the BC Liberals are now known – was a “natural transition” for him, though he concedes it’s a “very complicated” situation.

“If I was looking for the easy choice, the easy choice would have been to stay in the private sector, make money, snuggle my kids and watch Disney movies,” he added, rejecting suggestions he was an opportunist.

The BC Conservatives have emerged from relative obscurity to become, according to one recent poll, the favourites to win the provincial election on Oct. 19.

Rustad, another former BC Liberal, is the man who has led the party to the brink of the power.

With the party’s new popularity, however, has come a number of changes, including the welcoming of more liberal voices such as Dew’s.

That has alienated some members and former members, including Alexandra Wright, the candidate who was dumped by the BC Conservatives to make way for Dew.

Wright told NowMedia last week she was disappointed with Rustad’s transformation, even accusing him of making statements with “socialist vibes.”

Earlier this year, Rustad told NowMedia he wanted to reassure his MLAs that their ridings should always come first, and the party second. Rustad himself was turfed from the BC Liberals because of a social media post.

But as the BC Conservatives have begun to look like they could actually win in October, central control appears to have been tightened, with a number of potentially awkward candidates being removed.

To Dew, a lot of these changes can be attributed to “growing pains.”

“This is a party that has been building very quickly,” he said. “I think about it like a startup that has been scaling extremely, extremely quickly. And that's always challenging. Behind the scenes, when it comes to candidates and nominations and political parties, it is always complicated.”

The party, he said, is in for a “very difficult few years,” but he insisted it is now the primary vehicle for the centre-right coalition in BC.

“It's really important that folks who have been formerly BC liberals, which was the vehicle for the small 'c' conservative common sense coalition, folks that are in BC United, it's important for them to know that the water's warm and the doors are open,” he added.

In the interview, Dew also discussed:

• Scrapping the carbon tax

• Reforming the short-term rental rules that have “contributed very substantially to an absolute collapse of tourism in Kelowna”

• How the BC NDP are “scared” and “don’t care at all about rural British Columbia”

• The opportunity for Kelowna to grow as a “destination” for tech

• Changing the tax system to remove “layers upon layers of detritus”

• BC United’s “hail Mary” tax announcement

To watch the full interview on YouTube, head here.