Erin O’Toole is a great admirer of Winston Churchill but he apparently does not subscribe to the Great Man’s maxim: “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity.”
The Conservative Party is a house divided heading into its policy convention this week – and a number of senior Conservatives are pointing the finger of blame at O’Toole and his team for engaging in divisive tactics aimed at marginalizing potential rivals.
Multiple sources suggest it was made clear to Peter MacKay, O’Toole’s closest challenger in a bitter leadership contest, that the new leader did not want him to run in the next election in his former Central Nova riding.
Ryan Sharpe, president of the electoral district association of Central Nova, said a press release was issued saying the riding membership wanted MacKay to run and the former foreign affairs minister was open to fulfilling the commitment he had made during the leadership contest of running, win or lose.
But Sharpe said the suggestion did not receive a warm reception from the party. “I got the sense they didn’t want it to happen,” he said.
“It struck a bad tone with a lot of people. Nobody in Central Nova would have a better shot than Peter. I’d say it knocked a lot of wind out of the sails of a lot of people.”
Central Nova is still without a candidate to take on incumbent Liberal MP, Sean Fraser.
“It’s stupid. Peter can get you seats in the East,” said one former senior party executive.
Cory Hann, the Conservative Party’s director of communications, called suggestions of disunity “nonsense.”
“We are a strong, united party and it was Mr. MacKay himself who said he wouldn’t be running again,” he said.
An October 2020 email from national campaign manager Fred Delorey, who ran (unsuccessfully) to succeed MacKay in the Central Nova seat in 2015, explained the party’s position to the riding association.
“Peter has told us well over a month ago that he has no intention of running and that he was merely waiting to conclude negotiations with a prospective employer before publicly announcing,” the email said.
Friends of MacKay say that is categorically false and that it was made clear to a member of his former campaign team that under no circumstances did the new leader want him to run.
He has created discord where none existed
This aggressive settling of old scores goes beyond the candidate himself. Twenty-four MPs who backed MacKay and held shadow ministerial roles under former leader Andrew Scheer, found themselves without portfolios after O’Toole won. (The party points out that 12 MacKay supporters retained critic roles but with 52 spots in the shadow cabinet and only 38 MPs backing O’Toole, some retention was almost inevitable.
Pierre Poilievre, who did not back MacKay but was sucking up a lot of publicity oxygen in his role as shadow finance minister, promptly found himself demoted to industry critic last month.
Change is inevitable with any new regime but successful leaders create a team from former rivals. When Brian Mulroney won the Progressive Conservative leadership in June 1983, he embraced his former challengers – including Joe Clark, Don Mazankowski, Jake Epp and Erik Nielsen – drawing them into his inner circle and helping to pay off their campaign debts. By drawing the Conservative family together, he created what became known as the Blue Thunder movement and led the party to power the following year.
O’Toole is a student of history but he seems unwilling to learn that particular lesson, in favour of re-litigating the leadership contest. It smacks of insecurity.
“He has created discord where none existed,” said a senior Conservative, who pointed out that Stephen Harper treated MacKay with respect as a co-founder of the party – respect that was reciprocated.
At staff level, MacKay supporters have also been frozen out of O’Toole’s Conservative Party. “It feels like the Chrétien/Martin era Liberal Party,” said one political staffer, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job.
“A lot of talent has been sidelined,” said another former Hill staffer. The result has been a string of rookie mistakes, such as the tweet issued by the Conservative Party official account late Monday that read: “Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are more worried about saving Canadian jobs than their own.” The gaffe was hauled down but not before grateful Liberals screen-grabbed and re-tweeted its nitwitedness. People have made more damaging mistakes – Britain’s most popular hiking magazine once directed climbers along a route that would have taken them off the face of Ben Nevis. But it does diminish the Official Opposition’s credibility when it comes to accusing the government of incompetence.
With the leader and his party languishing in the polls, you might expect a concerted effort to heal old wounds. But the opposite seems the case. “Erin’s people are so convinced they are going to form government, they can afford to purge rivals,” said the veteran Hill staffer.
That is not what public opinion polls indicate, with the Liberals in majority territory and the Conservatives dipping below 30 per cent support in an average of recent surveys.
If that result was replicated in a general election, there would be a mutiny among the Conservative membership and swift calls for a new leader. “If I was Peter or Pierre, I would start to nosy around as soon as the convention is over,” said one former senior figure in the party.
Walied Soliman, the respected Toronto-based lawyer who chaired O’Toole’s leadership campaign, said many of the new leader’s critics are simply “stirring the pot.” He pointed out that Steve Outhouse, former campaign director for leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis, has since been named as O’Toole’s deputy chief of staff.
“Erin and Fred (Delorey) have taken great pains to ensure there is involvement at the most senior level by people from other leadership campaigns…..Erin has not appointed a single candidate. If Peter MacKay had put his name forward and won that nomination, he would be a candidate today,” he said. “The critics need to give the leadership the opportunity to succeed.”
None of the dozen Conservative sources I spoke with are optimistic about the party’s prospects. None thought a coup is possible this side of an election. But they were far less confident about the resilience of party unity in the event of a defeat that restored Trudeau’s majority.
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