Canada Conservative leader Erin O’Toole ousted after failure to defeat Justin Trudeau
- His own party lawmakers voted 73-45 against the ex-lawyer and military veteran in a secret-ballot confidence vote
- O’Toole had tried to move the Conservatives to the political centre, but lost votes in the Toronto and Vancouver suburbs that often swing Canadian elections
Canada’s opposition Conservatives have ousted their leader after he failed to defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in last year’s election.
Erin O’Toole, who has held the top job since August 2020, lost a secret-ballot confidence vote of elected lawmakers on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by Scott Reid, chair of the party’s caucus.
Of the 119 members of parliament, 73 voted against O’Toole while 45 supported him. The vote required only a simple majority to pass.
On Wednesday evening, the Conservative caucus chose Candice Bergen, an MP from the central province of Manitoba, to be the interim leader until a permanent replacement is decided at a party convention.
It will be the third leadership race for the party since Stephen Harper – who was prime minister for nine years – resigned in 2015 after his election loss to Trudeau.
O’Toole, a military veteran and former corporate lawyer, had attempted to move the party to the political centre, reversing its opposition to carbon pricing. Internal criticism over those policies broke out into open rebellion this week, with more than a third of his caucus signing a letter calling for the leadership vote.
The 49-year-old’s ouster raises questions about the party’s ability to stay united. It was formed in 2003 by merging the centrist Progressive Conservatives with the more populist Canadian Alliance. Before that, the Liberals capitalised on a divided opposition to win three straight majority governments.
The internal turmoil around O’Toole’s leadership started just a few months after he won the leadership. Although he ran for the party helm as a hard-line, “True Blue” conservative, he pivoted to a more moderate stand afterward that irked many supporters of the party.
Along with adopting a carbon price as the party’s environmental policy, he also made a concerted pitch to organised labour to vote Conservative.
Conservative vote plunged in Canada’s most Chinese electorates
O’Toole justified the moves in part by arguing they would lead to gains in the Toronto and Vancouver suburbs that often swing Canadian elections, but in last year’s campaign the Conservatives lost seats in those areas.
Wednesday’s vote took place against the backdrop of the rowdy trucker convoy that rolled into Ottawa on Friday to protest vaccine mandates.
The convoy added more problems for O’Toole, as some Conservatives – including finance critic Pierre Poilievre, a possible contender for the top job – staunchly embraced the demonstrations.
But O’Toole, wary of the more extreme views of some of the organisers, avoided identifying closely with the convoy.
