BONOKOSKI: O’Toole ousted in open rebellion. Who dares be next?
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It was no surprise to former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole that he was going to be ousted from his job.
The sound of knives rattling from the rear of his caucus — a crescendo near the end — gave him no recourse but to accept the fate his rebellious MPs had written for him.
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When he offered in the end to drop some policies his party had made in going too far to the left, it only showed his weakness of being far too willing to flop-flop and his inability to control the social conservatives within the party.
So, on Wednesday morning, there was a secret ballot in a virtual session which took him out with 73 of 118 MPs voting to end his job.
Manitoba MP Candice Bergen was later appointed the party’s new interim leader. She’ll hold that position until a new leader is chosen at a full party convention.
The ouster of O’Toole wasn’t even close. He had no hope of selling his case.
At a time when Canadians are desperate for leadership, O’Toole has revealed himself to be a follower, wrote former right-wing Tory Derek Sloan. He has no core principles other than whatever the polls are saying. Everyone can sense that he’s politically untrustworthy and lacked integrity in carrying out his job.
Bergen has a tough job ahead. She has to contend with a party that is fractured and has moved far to the wishy-washy left.
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O’Toole, barely a year into his leadership, faced an internal revolt. The organizers of this effort brought a letter with the names of the anti-O’Toole MPs to Scott Reid, the Conservative caucus chair.
In a memo to all Tory MPs on Monday, Reid said he was prepared to have the vote at Wednesday’s national caucus meeting.
And so it was done.
Ron Liepert, a Calgary MP and supporter of O’Toole, admitted “there is a lot of unhappiness amongst the party” and that whoever is elected interim leader “will have a hell of a tough job ahead.”
There are pundits who call this the “revenge” of the Harperites, a move that virtually ensures it will move towards a more solid hard-right Conservative Party.
Between the ouster of O’Toole and the Conservatives’ choice for interim leader was a Question Period in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked if he was going to do anything to ease the tensions outside Parliament in the Freedom Convoy, now in its fourth day.
Trudeau’s response was to once again about pushing vaccinations and said nothing even indirectly about the gridlock of heavy-duty transport rigs.
Meanwhile, O’Toole, who at first presented himself as a true blue Tory, moved to the centre to try to tighten the pegs of a big-tent party and attempt to get some seats in cities like downtown Toronto.
It was his doing-in.
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