Erin O’Toole’s fight to remain Conservative leader has begun

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This article was published 21/09/2021 (1453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Erin O’Toole’s fight to remain Conservative leader has already begun.

A source close to the O’Toole campaign told the Star Tuesday morning that he will encourage the Conservative caucus to adopt Reform Act measures that will allow for a leadership review.

“He’s got to have the support of caucus … He knows that, and (the Reform Act) is something that he’s pushed for in the past,” the source, who agreed to speak to the Star on the condition they not be named, said.

“The leader was very clear after the last election, caucus should support the Reform Act where caucus gets to vote for a leadership review, and he’ll support that again and push that, that caucus can do that if they so choose.”

With mail-in ballots and votes still left to be counted early Tuesday morning, the most likely scenario is Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will be returned to Ottawa to govern a minority Parliament.

As of 2:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, the results were almost identical to 2019’s election results — with Elections Canada projecting the Liberals winning or leading in 155 seats, the Conservatives in 122, the Bloc Québécois with 33 and the New Democrats with 26.

There are a significant number of mail-in ballots that remain to be counted, and they could fundamentally alter those standings.

But it is a disappointing result for O’Toole and his campaign — who sold their move to the political centre as a way to win votes in Ontario.

“Look, we’re going into a new Parliament, a very fractured Parliament where the prime minister made a play for a majority and got the same result he got before,” the source said.

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In his concession speech early Tuesday morning, O’Toole made it clear that he intends to stay on to lead the Conservative party into the next election — which he warned was right around the corner, since the Liberals failed to win a majority.

And he doubled down on the necessity for the party to change to secure power.

“A few months ago, I told Conservatives that our party needed the courage to change because Canada has changed. Over the past 36 days, we have demonstrated to Canadians that we’ve set out on a path to engage more Canadians in our Conservative movement,” O’Toole told a small crowd of supporters in Oshawa.

“Ours is a conservatism that dwells not in the past, but learns from it.”

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