Unhappy
Conservatives say Erin O'Toole pulled the right-leaning party too far into the
political center during the campaign for the Sept. 20 election, in particular
by backing a carbon tax to fight climate change. Others feel
he was too slow to show enthusiasm for a truckers' anti-government protest that
is snarling Ottawa, say two senior former Conservative officials. O'Toole said
the move into the political center was necessary to draw moderate voters away
from Trudeau's left-leaning Liberals. The gambit failed, leading to a third
consecutive Conservative election loss. "I'm
not going anywhere and I'm not turning back. Canada needs us to be united and
serious!" O'Toole tweeted late on Monday. "It's time for a reckoning.
To settle this in caucus. Right here. Right now." Some 35
legislators have signed a letter calling for an early leadership review and the
119 Conservative members of parliament could vote on O'Toole's fate as early as
Wednesday. Jonathan
Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, said
"it looks very bad" for O'Toole, since even if he survived, the
result would be close, thereby undermining his authority. "It may
not be a quick death, but it does look like a fatal wound," he said by
phone. Party
officials did not respond to requests for more details of how and when a vote
might be held. A simple majority would be enough to immediately oust O'Toole. Dissident
Conservative lawmaker Garnett Genuis said it was "very sad to see Erin
O'Toole launching more false personal attacks" and called on him to quit. The party is
dominated by legislators from western Canada, where conservatism tends to be
more populist than elsewhere. The challenge is that most seats in the House of
Commons are further east, in more heavily populated Ontario and Quebec. The Ottawa
protest since Saturday, ostensibly against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truck
drivers, has turned into a more populist anti-government gathering. If O'Toole
loses, a potential replacement is Ontario premier Doug Ford, who told reporters
he had no plans to enter the party leadership race. Another likely candidate is
Conservative finance spokesman Pierre Poilievre, who was much stronger
initially than O'Toole in his support of the truckers. One former
senior official said O'Toole's stance "probably pushed people over the
edge," adding that discontent had been building up in January. O'Toole, 49,
was elected leader in August 2020 with the support of only seven sitting
legislators. One of those
parliamentarians, Bob Benzen, said "there have been numerous instances of
flip-flops and questionable judgments" by O'Toole and called for a vote to
avoid what he called irreparable damage. If the
ructions become too deep, the party - created in 2003 by a merger of the moderate
Progressive Conservatives and the more populist Canadian Alliance - could split
in two.