FLIP-FLOP O’TOOLE: Conservative MP explains WHY O’Toole must go

Some MPs spoke publicly as to why they are calling for a caucus review, including MPs who voted for O'Toole in both the 2017 and 2020 leadership election.

Bob Beznen, Conservative MP for Calgary Heritage, said that the result stems from O'Toole's performance in the federal election against Trudeau.

"Mr. O'Toole campaigned on being a Leader who could deliver more seats in the Greater Toronto Area, and yet the Conservatives have, on net, lost a seat in the GTA under his leadership.

"In an attempt to spin the 2021 Election loss, Mr. O'Toole has claimed the results made our caucus more "regionally diverse", but this came at the expense of losing seven seats in Western Canada, and an overall loss of two seats nationally." He continued, "Surely the goal of any national political party should be to form government by winning the most seats, and the Conservatives failed at this task under Mr. O'Toole."

O'Toole was criticized by Beznen for "the adoption of a de-facto carbon tax policy in April 2021 despite clear direction from our members who are opposed to a carbon tax,... despite his campaigning against such a tax during the leadership contest."

Beznen says that O'Toole also pressured MPs to support the 2021 Conservative platform "on penalty of expulsion from the party or removal as a candidate," while he himself "subsequently flip-flop[ped] on the platform promise to repeal the May 2020 Firearms Order-in-Council during the campaign."

He adds that O'Toole failed to stand up for the Charter of rights of Canadians during the pandemic, and that he has been given enough chances to course correct, to no avail.

Some other MPs have had to address allegations from the O'Toole team. A statement released last night, Genuis said that O'Toole was launching "attacks against members of his own team."

This after rumors that Genuis was part of the secretive group that organized the review letter.

"I did sign the letter seeking an early leadership review, but I was not the organizer of the letter. About 1/3rd of caucus signed a letter calling for an end to Erin O'Toole's leadership, representing a broad cross-section of opinion," he wrote.

"Mr. O'Toole should recognize that his position is untenable, rather than using lies to publicly attack members of his own team."