Erin O’Toole says he was partly to blame for Conservative party’s election loss

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This article was published 27/01/2022 (1100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole admitted Thursday his own personal failings as leader were a contributing factor to his party’s loss in the 2021 election.

His comments came after a lengthy caucus meeting where the findings of a wide-ranging internal review of the party’s election campaign were presented to MPs and senators.

The report — commissioned by O’Toole — blamed everything from a poisoning of relationships with ethnically diverse communities in the 2015 election campaign to outdated technology as reasons the Tories didn’t best the Liberals last summer.

A breakthrough at the polls next time will require breaking down the walls around the party, the review concluded. Among other things, it said that will require free memberships, better outreach to cultural communities, a more diverse roster of candidates, and an authentic and genuine approach from the leader himself.

“There’s a lot I had to learn,” O’Toole told a news conference Thursday evening. “There’s a lot that went well. There’s things that didn’t.”

O’Toole said he heard that he was too scripted in the final days of the campaign, and didn’t get out enough to connect with supporters and potential voters.

The review was led by defeated Conservative MP James Cumming. More than 400 people were interviewed and 80 written submissions were accepted in a probe that O’Toole hoped would diffuse some of the anger directed at him for the party’s performance.

The complete report is not expected to be made public, but the Star spoke to multiple sources that had been briefed on its contents.

Findings shared with the Star earlier Thursday had noted that the issues the party faced in the 2021 campaign go back farther than the summer of 2020, when O’Toole became leader.

The review found that the party’s reputation still suffers with voters because of its proposal during the 2015 federal election campaign to implement a “barbaric cultural practices” telephone hotline and ban the wearing of face coverings during citizenship ceremonies.

The Conservative government of Stephen Harper was defeated in that election, and the report says the party has not been able to recover support it lost in cultural communities as a result of those policies, a source told the Star.

The report also said the party has been locked in leadership races and internal discord since 2015, and that has coloured its reputation in the minds of voters who aren’t sure what it represents or stands for.

O’Toole said the Conservatives failed to address some issues that Canadians wanted to hear their policies on, although he did not elaborate, and also failed to showcase issues for Western Canada specifically.

“All of these decisions are my responsibility,” he said.

The 2021 election saw the Tories win 119 seats, down two from their total in the 2019 campaign.

While they did pick up some new ridings, including several in the Atlantic Provinces, they lost seats in the Tory heartland of Alberta, as well as MPs in key constituencies in the greater Vancouver and Toronto areas.

One finding shared with MPs Thursday was that efforts by the Tories’ rivals to link them with Alberta’s provincial government, led by former Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney, tarnished their reputation nationally.

Just ahead of the federal election, Alberta had lifted many COVID-19 restrictions despite criticism that the move would put lives in danger. A subsequent surge in cases overwhelmed hospitals, and Kenney later apologized for the decision.

Kenney, who served with O’Toole in the Harper cabinet, was one of his main supporters during the federal party’s 2020 leadership contest.

O’Toole won the leadership with a platform he framed as being “true blue” Conservative, but subsequently reversed himself on a number of positions, including a pledge not to implement carbon pricing.

Proposing a carbon-pricing scheme cost support in Alberta, and a mid-campaign muddle on the party’s gun policy also drained support there and in urban centres, MPs were told Thursday.

Those policy flip-flops, the seat losses and the failed breakthroughs are among the many factors contributing to unrest among the grassroots and caucus, and ongoing calls for O’Toole to step down.

While he’s set to face the membership in a leadership review in 2023, several efforts have sprung up to force an earlier vote, including a petition by a former party councillor, and another by Sen. Denise Batters, a longtime Tory organizer.

Some electoral district associations have now passed motions urging the party to speed up the process.

Two riding associations — one in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan — had already gone public with their motions for an earlier vote.

A third in northern Ontario passed its own motion late Wednesday, and others are now mulling a similar approach, multiple sources have told the Star.

While riding associations can pass whatever motions they like, there is no requirement for the party’s national council to grant their requests.

Whether Cumming’s review assuages any of the anger among the grassroots remains to be seen.

“We’ve got a good strong caucus. We’ve been through challenges before, we’re going to get through this one as well,” deputy party leader Candice Bergen told reporters Thursday.

As the briefing was underway Thursday, many Conservative MPs were just “rolling their eyes” at the results, one MP told the Star, and wondering whether any changes would actually get made that could set the party on a stronger course for victory.

The idea that free memberships could solve elements of the party’s failure to connect was also panned.

“Free memberships are an awful idea. You do not value what you do not pay for,” Alberta MP Tom Kmiec wrote on social media.

“Party memberships have nothing to do with election campaigns. Election campaigns are about selling ideas, not memberships.”

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz