A New Leader for the Conservative Party

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick, sourced from globeandmail.com

Erin O’Toole is the new federal leader of the Conservative Party, replacing Andrew Scheer. His slogan on the conservative website is “Leader of the Official Opposition & Shadow Minister for Middle-Class Prosperity.” O’Toole within his first three months has made several newsworthy comments, having voiced opinions on topics such as residential schools and the Covid-19 vaccine. When Ontario put prison staff and their inmates on the priority list for the vaccine, O’Toole was outraged and took to Twitter with that anger. “Not one criminal should be vaccinated ahead of any vulnerable Canadian or frontline health worker,” O’Toole tweeted on January 5, 2021. This did not come as a surprise for many, as this sentiment aligns with the traditional federal conservative viewpoint that many citizens have found disappointing. O‘Toole has already been called by the public to resign over the matter. Although Erin O’Toole has retracted some of his more divisive comments, he has kept up the popularity of his party as set by his predecessor Andrew Sheer.

Much like many of Canada’s politicians, O’Toole grew up in a middle-class home and has a vast education with a bachelor’s degree from the Royal Military College and a law degree from Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. O’Toole served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 12 years before pursuing his law degree and practicing law for 10 years.

He became a member of parliament for Durham in 2012 and served within the Harper government for a short time as Verteran Affair minister. He ran against Scheer in the federal candidate race in 2017 and came in third, after which Scheer gave him the role of Opposition Critic for foreign affairs. Scheer resigned in 2019, beginning the leadership race once again, and O’ Toole won against candidates Peter Mackay, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan. Leslyn Lewis also notably made history by being the first visible minority candidate to run in a conservative leadership race, where she came in third. 

Patrick Jackson, a former Graduate student of Lakehead University, shared his reservations about O’Toole saying that “[He] seems crooked. If he was my neighbour I wouldn’t trust him to watch my house and not look through my underwear drawers”. 

Unlike Andrew Scheer, O’Toole was not in parliament during major votes such as marriage equality and has had little to say on the matter, though he has expressed his view that people of all races, creeds, and orientations are “an important part of Canada and have a home in the Conservative Party of Canada”. O’Toole hopes to foster a more diverse base for the conservative party, noting in an interview with Huffington Post: “My main goal is that in the next election I want more Canadians waking up that morning and seeing a Conservative staring at them in the mirror. More young people, more women, more new Canadians, members of the LGBTQ community, Indigenous Canadians.” O’Toole has so far shown himself to look out for the middle class. He has also recently started the process to remove an MP for racial comments: Derek Sloan, who ran against O’Toole in the earlier Conservative Party leadership race.