(OTTAWA) Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was shown the door by his own party’s MPs, who voted 62% to impeach him. An interim successor will be named on Wednesday evening.
Posted at 12:53 p.m.
Updated at 1:07 p.m.
“There are 119 deputies in the CCP caucus. President [du caucus] did not vote. Therefore, 118 votes were cast. Of those, 45 were in favor of supporting Erin O’Toole’s leadership, and 73 were in favor of replacing Erin O’Toole as leader of the Conservative Party,” caucus chair Scott Reid said Wednesday.
The confidence vote was forced by almost a third of the party’s caucus members.
During the virtual meeting of the national caucus, Erin O’Toole had pleaded her case for a few minutes, in the hope of convincing those who are calling for her departure.
According to sources who attended the meeting, he promised in particular to advance the vote of confidence of the members of the party which must take place in August 2023 during the next national congress in Quebec.
He also said he was ready to change certain party policies to take into account the grievances of some MPs who criticized him for changing the main directions of the Conservative Party without consulting them.
Some MPs have argued that the decision to impeach the leader should be up to party members and not some 60 elected officials.
Subsequently, the deputies spoke about its future, with the result that we know now.
“The lack of trust was widespread. Mr. O’Toole was good for Quebec, but his leadership did not live up to the expectations of the caucus,” reacted Pierre Paul-Hus.
In the streets of the city center, the chorus of truckers’ horns intensified significantly after the announcement of this disavowal.
A new interim leader is to be chosen Wednesday at 7 p.m.
It took only a few minutes before an elected official showed interest in the adventure. This is John Williamson from New Brunswick.
“I will respect my colleagues and listen to our [mouvement]. I know how to unite conservatives around the things that matter most to us, ”wrote the one who was Stephen Harper’s communications director before taking the leap into active politics.
“An untenable position”
On the eve of this crucial vote on Tuesday, the majority of the deputies crossed in parliament had refused to say whether they supported the leader.
We know that MPs Bob Benzen and Garnett Genuis, both from Alberta, are among the mutineers. The two had set their sights on Erin O’Toole during the 2020 leadership race.
According to the first, the party risked an “irreparable dangerous fracture” with this leader in charge, and according to the other, the leader was in an “untenable position”.
The Conservative senator from Saskatchewan who had launched a petition to demand a vote of confidence, Denise Batters, had expressed her confidence in seeing Erin O’Toole forced to return the keys to Stornoway.
“I felt it would be a day of true blue,” she quipped on Twitter.
Among the series of recriminations formulated last November at the time of the launch of her petition, the senator had reproached Erin O’Toole for presenting himself as a “true rookie” in order to win the leadership race before operating a refocusing during the unsuccessful election campaign.
We learned Monday evening that 35 of the 119 caucus members, that is to say almost a third of the deputation, had written a letter to the president of the national caucus, Scott Reid, to demand a vote of confidence as of this Wednesday.
According to a law that had been brought by Conservative MP Michael Chong, if at least 20% of a party’s elected officials demand a leadership review, a vote must take place in caucus.
The Reasons Of The Wrath
The discontent, which was latent, was exacerbated by the publication of a report on the electoral defeat of September 2021, revealed during the caucus meeting last Wednesday, according to our information.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back, as conservative sources told The Press, it was this dithering that preceded the arrival of the “freedom convoy” of truckers.
Prominent elected officials like Candice Bergen, Andrew Scheer and Pierre Poilievre had given their stamp of approval before the vehicles arrived in Ottawa, which are still camped out for a sixth day in a row.
Chief O’Toole initially expressed reservations about endorsement, saying that was not his role as a politician and party leader, before doing an about-face.
In a reaction published around 11:30 p.m. Monday evening, Erin O’Toole said he would respect the result of a referendum on his leadership.
“I will accept the result of this vote. The signatories of this letter must also accept it. They wrote it. They will have to live with it,” he wrote on social media.