Thread by @Mitchell_AB

O’Toole’s statement is quite good - strong, decisive.

It’s also a distraction and an attempt to brand the party with his politics, rather than the base who supports it. #cdnpoli conservative.ca/statement-from…

Of particular note, there are two subjects in his statement. O’Toole personally and the CPC generally. In his “I” statements, he positions himself as a centrist (which doesn’t mean “middle”, it means holding views that are traditionally left or right at the same time).

Let’s start with the 2020 leadership. Peter MacKay, the former federal Progressive Conservative leader, positioned himself as the moderate with a distinct fetish for the right, having served the PC’s to Stephen Harper’s CRAP (Conservative Reform Alliance Party). Never gets old.

Leslyn Lewis spent her initial campaign targeting religious groups and kept herself out of the mainstream media by refusing interviews. The move allowed for both media criticism (they aren’t covering the first Black CPC leadership candidate!”...
politicalrnd.ca/2020/08/23/whi…

And denying media an opportunity to ask about BLM protests. Lewis, a highly educated Black woman, found BLM’s demands for change too radical for the foundation of societal good. leslynlewis.ca/black_lives_ma…

Then you had Derek Sloan, whose base of appeal is the same as Lewis’ but as a white male, was afforded the luxury of never having to weigh his words. His reliance on the old stock Canadian vote saw him dropped after the first round.

https://twitter.com/mitchell_ab/status/1300939294203236353

O’Toole positioned himself in the middle of that hot mess, which may be the centre for his party, but is much further right than most Canadians. The 2017 leadership race offered a throwback to PC pragmatism in Micheal Chong, who managed 9% of the vote among CPC members.

In the same race, Maxime Bernier, who now leads the libertarian nationalist People’s Party of Canada, made it to the final round with Andrew Scheer, losing by a bare 1%. Bernier was ousted from his own seat in 2019 and his party earned only 1.7% of the vote nationally.

Suffice it to say, a membership that finds itself in a nail biter of a race to choose between Scheer and Bernier is not concerned about pragmatic governance.

O’Toole can position himself wherever he wants, but it’s laughable if he thinks he can carry the CPC with him.