(Ottawa) Erin O’Toole, the leader of the Conservative Party, tasted what he tasted this Tuesday when he personally met his MPs in Ottawa for the first time since his election defeat on September 20.
The share of this meeting is not small: will the centrist turn imposed by the Conservative leader on his party be permanent or will it be a tragedy that will continue during the election campaign?
This turn leads to a confrontation between the reformist faction of the party from the western provinces and the progressive faction dominant in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.
However he acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat President Conte’s Conservative MP Michael Chong. Erin O’Toole must have had a good idea, if only at the end of the day on Tuesday, when some elected officials want to make her life harder by the time they officially vote on the party leadership at the next national conference in Quebec. In 2023, after the election defeat the party was provided according to the constitution.
The day after the poll, national executive member Bert Chen launched a petition for a referendum on the leader’s leadership ahead of the 2023 meeting. But his actions have not had a ripple effect until here.
In anonymity, Conservative MPs in the West have said that Erin O’Toole will not be head of Radio-Canada.
“The chef can pretend to have achieved a lot [au scrutin du 20 septembre]. Honestly, I think he is deaf to criticism. We did not win anything in this election, “said a member of the Radio-Canada delegation at a meeting on Tuesday.
In the final ballot, the Conservative Party won 34% of the vote and elected 119 supporters. These results are almost identical to those obtained by former leader Andrew Scheer in the October 2019 election. The latter announced his resignation two months later, unable to calm the growing discontent due to his oscillations over the issue of abortion during the campaign. He left the party leadership before members could open the door on a no-confidence motion in April 2020.
“Necessary” refocusing
In Quebec, 10 re-elected Conservative MPs have already indicated what brand they belong to. They want to continue the course on re-creating party policies on social issues, among other things, in the fight against climate change. In particular, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney received blessings during the campaign. Without hesitation, they want to give their captain a second chance.
Photo by Oliver Pontbryand, archives the press
Alain Reyes, Conservative MP for Richmond-Arthabasca in 2018
This, in my view, needs to be re-focused. We need to anticipate it and find a way to sell our conservative positions to get closer to certain communities and urban areas. We cannot camouflage areas where our party has already voted.
Alain Reyes, Conservative MP for Richmond-Arthabasca
At the Caucasus meeting, Conservatives elected from Quebec did not hesitate to provide some statistics to their colleagues from other provinces. In fact, the Conservative Party did not win another seat in the province of La Belle, despite Erin O’Toole’s outstretched hand and the contract he offered to Cubes during the campaign. But under his leadership, the Conservatives received nearly 80,000 votes or a total of 755,548 votes in 2019 than in Quebec.
And the Conservative MP argued on Monday that “755,548 votes in Quebec are more than we got in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.” Erin O Tool Parliamentary Leader Gerard Deltel
“This is more Conservative votes than in British Columbia,” he said, noting the 741,043 Conservative votes counted in ballot boxes in the province on September 20.
In addition, 7 out of 10 Conservative MPs won their constituencies with 50% or more of the vote.
In short, Erin O’Toole’s centrist turn, which did not win new seats in Quebec but paid dividends on his first attempt as party leader. In Alberta, a stronghold of the Conservative Party, three seats were lost (two to the Liberal Party and one to the New Democratic Party), but this was largely due to the mismanagement of the epidemic by the Jason Kenny government.
“As the leader said, after the election we did not win, we were disappointed with the results and it was normal. After two weeks we have a responsibility to act realistically and responsibly. Yes, we got more votes. Yes, we have grown significantly in Quebec and we are very proud of it. But we We are going to analyze what we have done and what we have not done. It will be a very useful exercise, ”Mr. Deltel commented.
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