OTTAWA — The Conservative caucus is currently meeting to decide whether it wants Erin O’Toole to remain the party’s leader.
A third of the caucus of 118 MPs signed a letter earlier this week to force a secret ballot vote on his leadership at Wednesday’s caucus meeting, an expression of what party insiders have said is a broad dissatisfaction with O’Toole’s performance.
O’Toole has been fighting to hold on to his role to some degree since the Conservatives’ September 2021 election defeat, reaching this point after a handful of electoral district associations put forward calls for a leadership vote before the one scheduled at the party’s national convention in 2023.
The embattled leader has framed this as “a reckoning” where the party needs to make a choice about what kind of party it wants to be going forward, a question the Conservatives have been grappling with for some time.
Over the last few days both current and former MPs have spoken out, issuing open letters making their case to their colleagues as to why they feel it’s time for O’Toole to go.
Among the concerns expressed by current and former MPs are O’Toole’s “flip-flops” on key issues, and the party losing seats and MPs in key regions of the country despite leading in the polls for the early part of the 2021 campaign. Others feel he failed to stand up for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms during the pandemic, and has failed to unite the party.
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There has also been inner-party disagreements over O’Toole’s more moderate positions on conversion therapy, deficit spending, and pricing carbon, axjmtzywfter he framed himself as the “true blue” choice during his leadership bid.
Caucus granted itself the power to review and remove the party leader and elect an interim replacement through a series of Reform Act votes taken shortly after the last election.
To enable the early leadership review taking place today—something O’Toole resisted when one Conservative senator pushed for membership to get the chance to vote early—20 per cent of caucus needed to sign a formal agreement to trigger the process, which has occurred.
If more than 50 per cent of MPs vote to oust O’Toole, he will be removed as leader and caucus will then vote to elect an interim leader.
O’Toole still seemingly has the support of key members of his leadership team, though the majority of Conservative MPs declined to declare their position when asked by reporters on Tuesday.
Both sides of the vote have made indications that they feel strongly they will have the numbers today to come out on top.
If O’Toole is ousted, party membership will be thrust into its second leadership race amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and be asked to decide on a new leader for the third time since 2015.
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Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole speaks during a media availability in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 27, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
