Erin O’Toole says the Conservative party ‘has to change’ to win

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This article was published 19/03/2021 (1979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA–Erin O’Toole says Canada has changed, and the Conservative party needs to change, too.

In a keynote speech to the party faithful on Friday afternoon, O’Toole laid out some hard truths for a party that spent much of its modern existence in power under Stephen Harper.

“We are never going to win over Canadians just by relying on Justin Trudeau to continue to disappoint. His scandals, as outrageous as they often are, will never be enough to defeat him,” O’Toole said in his remarks.

“The Conservative party can defeat him, but only with the courage to grow, to move beyond a party that does well only in certain parts of Canada while leaving other Canadians out.

“We need to be the party for all of Canada.”

The speech from the leader at a Canadian political party’s policy convention is typically a rah-rah affair that attempts to energize party activists ahead of the next election. O’Toole’s speech Friday, delivered to party members who gathered virtually from kitchen tables and home offices across the country, was a departure from that tradition.

Noting that the party has lost the last two elections, O’Toole said the Conservatives need to present “new ideas,” not “the same arguments, hoping that maybe this time more Canadians will come around to our position.”

There were scant details about O’Toole’s new ideas — or, at least, how he would implement them — in Friday’s address.

The Conservative leader introduced what the party is calling “Canada’s Recovery Plan” — an umbrella term for the party’s vision for a post-pandemic economic recovery.

O’Toole pledged a Conservative government would “rebuild Main Street” by assisting small business, take “immediate action” to help sectors hit hardest by the pandemic’s economic fallout — including women forced out of the workforce, and young people — and offer a “comprehensive” employment plan” to recover one million lost jobs within one year.

Those commitments echoed some initiatives the Liberal government is already taking, with its income supports to workers and businesses during the pandemic, and its pledge to “build back better” after the pandemic ends.

But O’Toole cast Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s planned $100-billion stimulus package as reckless “reimagining” of the Canadian economy, compared to his promise of “security and certainty.”

“It may not be the most glamorous route, but it will get all of us safely to our destination,” O’Toole said.

The Conservative leader has been beset by weeks of negative headlines, with party insiders and MPs anonymously grumbling to the media about a lack of direction under O’Toole’s leadership.

Friday’s speech could be seen as a partial response to that criticism — if not in the details of O’Toole’s election pitch, at least in the broad strokes of where he said he wants to take the party.

Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @alexboutilier