O'Toole says he's 'not going anywhere' despite caucus revolt

Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole released a late-night statement via social media following news that his party would review his leadership. On Monday, 35 Conservative MPs signed a letter calling for the leadership review of party boss Erin O'Toole.

The letter would require Conservative MPs to vote as soon as Wednesday's caucus meeting. Sources told the Globe and Mail that at least 63 of the 119 Conservative MPs are ready to vote against O'Toole.

O'Toole said that the party had a choice over which direction it wanted to go down—one of anger, or one of moderation, specifically naming former Conservative MP Derek Sloan and former Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier as models for that anger.  

"There are two roads open to the Conservative Party of Canada. One is the road of Randy Hillier and Derek Sloan. It is angry, negative, and extreme. It is a dead-end; one that would see the party of Confederation become the NDP of the right."

"The other road is to better reflect the Canada of 2022. To recognize that conservatism is organic not static and that a winning message is one of inclusion, optimism, ideas and hope.

"There is a report tonight of members of the Conservative caucus who are unsure of what road to take. They are, it is said, bringing a letter to caucus to trigger a vote on my leadership of the Party."

O'Toole announced that he's "not going anywhere" and he's not "turning back."

"Canada needs us to be united and serious! It’s time for a reckoning. To settle this in caucus. Right here. Right now. Once and for all. Anger vs. Optimism. That is the choice in simple terms.

"I will accept the result of this vote. The signers of this letter must accept it, too. They brought it. They’ll have to live with it.

"Rebecca and I are committed to our Party and conservatism in Canada. We look forward to continuing the journey"

O'Toole has been the topic of much criticism in Conservative circles after weak messaging on the truckers convoy, though a source told CBC's Travis Dhanraj that the move to oust O'Toole as leader "stems from the conversion therapy vote," noting that "MP @GarnettGenuis is spearheading the coup because he was in Latvia when we gave unanimous consent to make conversion therapy illegal."

This was said by Garnett Genuis to be false.

In a statement released last night, Genuis said that O'Toole was launching "attacks against members of his own team."

"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."

What's next?

According to the Canadian Parliament website, "a leadership review process may be initiated by submitting to the party’s caucus chair a written notice signifying this intention, signed by at least 20% of the party’s caucus "

"The caucus chair must make public the content of the written notice immediately upon its receipt. The leadership review is to be conducted by a secret ballot among members of a caucus.

"Where a majority of caucus members vote in favour of replacing a party leader, a second vote shall be conducted immediately following the first vote, by secret ballot, to select an interim leader until a new party leader has been 'duly elected' by the party."