John Rustad faces further challenges within his own caucus as fall session begins

Conservative Leader John Rustad was facing further dissension within his ranks as the fall legislative session got underway in Victoria, with expectations high that he could face a vote on his leadership from within caucus as soon as Monday evening.

There was a caucus meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. and there were reports swirling around that a number of MLAs were unhappy with Rustad’s leadership amid controversies, including allegations of attempted ballot stuffing surrounding the party’s recently completed leadership review, and the dismissal of both Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko and party staffer Lindsay Shepherd.

While MLAs cannot remove the leader directly, they can vote to dismiss him as caucus leader, which would all but require him to resign as party leader. Rustad’s resignat