Conservative Party

OTTAWA–Erin O’Toole is preaching unity as his detractors within the Conservative Party of Canada whisper division.

Sources close to O’Toole say they are unconcerned with the spate of negative headlines and rabble rousing within the ranks as he heads into his first policy convention as leader this weekend.

Nevertheless, there is an acknowledgment among O’Toole’s inner circle that the call is coming from inside the house — that elements within their own party are seeking to undermine the new leader, even as the possibility of an election looms.

“If we were five or 10 points ahead in the polls, you wouldn’t be hearing any of it,” a senior Conservative source told the Star in an interview Wednesday.

The party has chosen to leave a great many former supporters behind. I’d vote for them even if I knew they’d lose assuming they at least tried to be conservative.

“…What we have to do is grow in Ontario and in British Columbia in particular, and in Quebec. We have to make sure we have a million more Conservatives going to the ballot in the next election. And that’s going to mean we have to grow who we’re speaking for,” O’Toole said.

“We need to reach out … We have to enlist more people in our mission. And I’ll tell you, reaching out is working. Because Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Singh, all the parties on the left, they don’t stand up for working families anymore. They stand up for protest groups and people on Twitter more than they do the pipe fitter, or the electrician, or someone that wants to get back to work so they can save up for their kids’ education.”

“We’re going to fight relentlessly for these people.”

Beats me how supporting mass immigration to please corporate interests is “standing up for working families.”

Policy that in the real world translates to a “A smaller piece of the pie for you” doesn’t sound like it will win over hearts and minds.

Perhaps it’s just too nuanced for me to understand and the conservative brain trust can explain it all to to me.

What is there to make of Erin O’Toole?

The MP for Durham, just east of Toronto, has been leader of the Conservative party for just over six months and faces the prospect of a federal election in less time than that.

Mr. O’Toole may be a very nice man but I don’t know him personally.

He presides over a party little different from Trudeau’s Liberals.

He favours mass immigration from wherever the numbers can be had to please the corporate class.

He walks the walk of the Woke, kowtowing to Trudeau’s media believing identity politics are the key to winning over urban voters in Ontario and Quebec.

He stands for nothing that I can see. Not free speech, not small government, (and I mean real cuts to the bureaucracy) and I doubt he will do anything about the CBC as he “promised.”

What’s not to like?