You’d think a big-game hunter with a degree in classical literature and seven daughters would be a perfect fit for the B.C. Conservative Party.
Family values. Versed in tragedy. Well-armed.
But it didn’t work out.
Dan Brooks quit as party leader Monday and the monumental indifference to that news shows how tough it is for people on the fringes of politics. His name is known only to elite-level B.C. politics trivia masters. His party is an afterthought, orphaned by the rock-solid B.C. Liberal coalition that more practical conservative voters support. Whatever difference he made during 20 months as leader is evident only to a few hundred active members of the party. Some of them begrudge him even that — there’s been some sniping about him not working hard enough.
His brief turn at the top gives a glimpse of how difficult it can get when someone decides they want to try to make a difference. Brooks is one of many people who developed that honourable intention and acted on it. Sometimes lightning strikes and people like Justin Trudeau wind up covered in glory. Often it doesn’t. The valiant effort just fizzles out.
Brooks is a 40-year-old hunting guide from the North who arrived on the scene after the B.C. Conservatives realized, yet again, they simply don’t have what it takes.
In early 2012, they looked ready to make their breakout move. They had well-known ex-MP John Cummins as leader. They’d turned ex-Liberal cabinet minister John van Dongen into a member. Encouraging poll results drew dozens of candidates.
Then their God-given ability to turn any situation into a clown show kicked in. Van Dongen left in a huff and Cummins started a purge of dissidents.
They managed to show up for the 2013 election, but didn’t even manage five per cent of the vote.
Brooks limped in — literally — to put the pieces back together. He was deep in the woods trying to recover a moose he’d shot when his packhorse kicked him, breaking his leg badly. Nonetheless, he beat Vancouver investment adviser Rick Peterson and took over in the spring of 2014.
Considering his colourful background, it was a pretty quiet tenure. He said Monday his biggest accomplishment was quelling the infighting and developing a new governance system within the party. Neither of those were considered newsworthy.
He’s quitting because he simply can’t afford to lead the party any more. The infighting isn’t as over as Brooks would like to think. Peterson is suing him in the belief Brooks had something to do with some anonymous poison pen letters about his investment career and Brooks said he’s racked up thousands of dollars in legal bills defending himself.
The leg injury stopped him from guiding for more than a year. He had to hire someone else to run his business last year. He only got back into it last spring. That meant a time-out from politics, which Brooks said created some hard feelings among Conservative supporters. One of them wrote a letter to the editor three months ago grumping about the leader’s low profile: “Whatever happened to the B.C. Conservative Party?”
Brooks’ response is simple: “I’ve got seven kids to feed.”
The time and money costs turned out to be too much.
“It all took a toll and I can’t keep it going,” he said. “There’s so much more to being a party leader than people see. You have to know every issue, who the characters are. I spent hours a day researching and it hurt the family. My wife is so relieved.”
After the fall hunting season, he got back into leader mode and toured B.C., but discerned that members didn’t like that he hadn’t been around.
“I never for a moment thought a grizzly-hunting Mormon from Vanderhoof would ever become premier,” he said. “But I hoped I’d be able to make the breakthrough to a number of seats, so someone else could take over.”
He’s a smart, well-spoken northerner who will likely show up on the ballot some day. But his leadership is a lesson in how circumstances have to align just so for that lightning to strike.
