Many who watched the recent Conservative Party convention found themselves in disbelief. I am not an exception to this. I watched as Erin O’Toole firmly laid the foundation for policies few in the West support. Chiefly among them, a further alienated Western Canada.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said today a Conservative government would call a public inquiry to examine the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a press conference in Ottawa this morning, O’Toole said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government was caught “unprepared” by COVID-19 and that its reaction to the pandemic’s spread has been “slow and confused.”
And?
It may seem counter-intuitive, but Canada’s Conservative Party is seeking short-term success in a way that ironically makes that success far more elusive.
Let’s face it, federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is a dud and a dud is never going to defeat Justin Trudeau.
A year ago, when the dawning of the pandemic forced the Tories to take their leadership campaign online and push back their leadership vote, I was struggling to choose a candidate to endorse: O’Toole or his principal rival, Peter MacKay?
I’m not really getting those ‘Just Erin’ ads the Conservatives are using to introduce Canadians to Erin O’Toole
I have to say I’m not really getting those “Just Erin” ads that the Conservatives are using to introduce Canadians to Erin O’Toole, who has been their leader for eight months now, following an eight-month leadership campaign, following a long leadership campaign before that.
The full story board is that, unlike a well-known prime minister who will remain nameless, he’s not a celebrity. He’s “Just Erin.” And some of the ads are just that: “Just Erin.”
I didn’t even know they were running ads.
A March 17 poll by the Angus Reid Institute should put a smile on the faces of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.
Although 49 per cent of those surveyed say it’s time for a change in government, the Liberals still hold a significant four-point lead over the Conservatives (35 per cent to 31 per cent) when it comes to voter intentions.
From Abacus Data released today…
CURRENT VOTING INTENTION
If an election were held now, the Liberals would win 38% of the vote (up 5 from our last wave), the Conservatives 30%, the NDP 17% (down 2), the Green Party 6% (down 2) and the BQ at 30% in Quebec (up 3). This is the largest lead for the Liberals in our tracking since mid-November 2020.
It might seem so obvious a point that one might overlook it when evaluating what we already know about the climate change plan the Conservatives will campaign on in the next general election but here it is anyway: Conservatives must win votes from people who did not vote for them in 2019 or in 2015.
And poll after poll after poll has indicated that one of the primary reasons voters chose another party over the Conservatives was climate change. Non-Conservative voters do not believe Conservatives are serious about climate change or, only slightly less worse, that the party’s plans to do anything about it were or are credible.
What Erin O’Toole and the federal Conservatives need is a platform like Mike Harris’ 1995 Common Sense Revolution in Ontario. Solid, sensible, small-c conservative policies presented in a way that is clear to voters.
What they don’t need is O’Toole pandering to elite consensus on issues such as climate change, then trying to force his party to go along because the CBC and Toronto Star say that’s the path to victory.
But that’s exactly the path they’ve chosen.
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole says the Conservative Party of Canada is not a party of climate change deniers, telling members the debate is over. True North’s Andrew Lawton points out that party leaders don’t get to direct the base, as Conservative convention delegates showed O’Toole.
Tar & feathers.
A friend recently asked what Erin O’Toole was thinking bringing forward a Conservative convention resolution that “climate change is real” instead of saying “man-made climate change” or specifying policy options. Which, though superficially very sensible, seemed to me to incorporate a major invalid assumption.
Namely that O’Toole was thinking, as you or I might use that word.
OTTAWA — Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole has made it clear he wants to move past debates about the existence of climate change, but the party’s national policy convention this weekend has shown it’s not so simple with his party’s base.
On Friday night, O’Toole gave a keynote speech to the convention promising his party will put forward a serious environment plan. “We cannot ignore the reality of climate change,” O’Toole said. “The debate is over.”
An acknowledgement of climate change exists as formal CPC policy.
Climate change isn’t really the issue however, it’s just a flashpoint and the CPC braintrust has missed that as usual.
It’s the constant kowtowing by the CPC to the lib-left media agenda across a range of issues that people hate, the evident shift to the left by the party leadership is galling to many, hated even more than having “climate change” shoved down their throat.
O’Toole and the CPC are over, they can’t even talk to their base any longer.
Erin O’Toole told Conservatives this weekend that their party must change — because if it doesn’t, he said, it won’t be able to win the votes necessary to defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the next election.
And if the Liberals do win, he added, they’ll be able to implement their own changes — changes that O’Toole cast as frightening and potentially ruinous.
But O’Toole didn’t tell Conservatives exactly how they need to change. And then delegates delivered a potentially damaging vote on climate change policy that suggests his party base might not be ready to move very far.
Canada has a Gravy Train Class fed and maintained primarily by the LPC with an outsized influence on elections.
The corporate welfare class, our lifestyle political class, large swaths of the media, NGO’s by the score, public service unions etc. etc. etc.
Ontario and Quebec are it’s primary habitat.
They have no reason to switch allegiance.
Right now the LPC controls Banana production in Bananada and that isn’t about to change.
Maybe the problem is insoluble, perhaps a national split-up is the answer.
But I don’t believe remaking the party into an ersatz LPC is the answer.
I’ll be voting PPC.
Conservative Party delegates at the party’s national convention have voted to make a key change to its leadership race rules that could substantially scale back Quebec’s disproportionate influence on the result.
While O’Toole delivered the speech effectively, there is very little underlying contrast of vision between what he is offering and what Canadians are currently getting. Mostly, he is promising to do what is being done now, with some tweaks and more competence.
Conservative Party must have ‘the courage to change,’ Erin O’Toole tells party convention
OTTAWA — In a highly-anticipated keynote speech to his party’s national convention, Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said it isn’t enough to wait for Liberal scandals to bring down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — the Conservatives must instead be willing to change in order to expand their voter base.
“We are never going to win over Canadians just by relying on Justin Trudeau to continue to disappoint,” O’Toole said. “His scandals, as outrageous as they often are, will never be enough to defeat him.”
No question the CPC is gonna need a higher power and it ain’t O’Toole.
