O’Toole resigns as leader of the party, will move out of his office ‘immediately’

This after O'Toole lost a caucus vote from his party 73 to 45.

A letter from Batherson thanked O'Toole for his service.

"Conservatives should be grateful for Erin O'Toole's service and his many sacrifices since he was elected Leader in August 2020. Few will ever know the effort it takes to be the Leader of our party," he wrote.

"... Regardless of where you find yourself in our Conservative coaltion, let us now focus on working together, respecting and listening to each other and finding a path for unity under our next Leader," he wrote.

Unity, however, may be easier said than done.

Conservative MP Robert Liepert told reporters on Parliament Hill that reuniting the party would be a "bloody tough job."

"I think it ended up being a number of cacus members who felt that in order to pull this bunch together, we needed to start fresh, and that Erin wasn't going to be able to do it. That's my opinion."

Liepert, who voted for O'Toole to stay, said that "There's a lot of unhappiness... I think there's a number of caucus members that said 'you know what, if this is just going to keep on going, we may as well start fresh.'"

"It's going to be a bloody tough job—bloody tough job," he said.