Juno News - Conservative activist launches petition calling for O'Toole to stay on as leader

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show

00:00:05.300 so i want to bring into the show fraser mcdonald he is the creator of the i support erin o'tool

00:00:12.200 petition which was launched not long after the one we spoke about yesterday calling for a recall

00:00:17.180 of erin o'tool fraser mcdonald joins me now fraser going to talk to you thanks for coming on today

00:00:21.980 pleasure andrew nice to chat as well uh so let's first off you had admitted off air and i don't

00:00:27.340 think it's uh it's it's pulling the rug out from under you to share this that this was not meant

00:00:31.040 to be this large orchestrated well-funded campaign it was something that you just did because you

00:00:36.120 wanted to say yeah we've got to be back erin o'tool here yeah you're you know i find our party has this

00:00:43.060 terrible um uh addiction to going after its own and uh you know for lack of a better term knifing

00:00:51.160 party leaders and you know i didn't love the way that andrew sheer was treated on the way out the

00:00:55.380 door last time and i just think i i worry that the disappointment from the results of this election

00:01:01.940 will cause us to make a a mistake here i think erin o'tool should remain the leader and uh i'm

00:01:07.700 gonna put my name out there and and ask other people to do the same thing is the message that

00:01:12.920 you think erin o'tool should remain the leader because of qualities that erin o'tool embodies or

00:01:17.680 is it more fundamental that you think a conservative leader should get more than just one kick at the

00:01:22.120 can to go up against justin trudeau or any opponent well it's both i mean first of all i think i think

00:01:28.340 erin is a good leader i think he's done a good job he still has things to improve upon obviously because

00:01:33.420 we didn't win but i think he is the man for the job and i think he will finish the job next time

00:01:39.360 if uh if we're smart enough to keep him around i don't think anyone automatically deserves a second

00:01:44.620 chance what i would say is is there a room to grow and do we have evidence that uh that they can get

00:01:50.640 where they need to get to and i believe we do there there's a double standard that some people

00:01:55.620 have pointed out and this could work in either direction depending on how you argued it with

00:01:59.580 andrew sheer he brought trudeau down to a minority increased the conservative seat count and still had

00:02:05.280 to go with erin o'tool we don't really see the gain a lot or let me clarify a lot of people are saying

00:02:10.740 there isn't a gain there that can really be granted to him a sort of a victory and i'm curious what

00:02:16.500 your thoughts about that line of argument on this was yeah i don't agree with uh much of that

00:02:22.640 argument i would say these are completely different elections and you know having been in the trenches

00:02:27.600 on this election i can really i i can speak from good experience um both you know watching how it

00:02:34.680 unfolded behind the scenes but also as a person who was outdoor knocking uh pretty much every day for

00:02:39.900 the last month and a half uh i i think i have a pretty good insight into what people are are thinking

00:02:44.500 out there and you know what i would say is there were just some enormous headwinds here i mean

00:02:49.440 justin trudeau called this election assuming he had a majority in the bag this was not some neck and

00:02:56.020 neck election at the beginning he had the upper hand he had all the levers and he decided to go for it

00:03:00.980 because of what he saw and so while you might say this is apologism saying that uh you know we we came

00:03:07.680 to a stalemate and that's i don't i wouldn't call it a win i would call it doing reasonably well in the

00:03:13.300 circumstances it was a really tough election i think uh in the last election the ppc was a non-event

00:03:19.120 and this time they weren't they they had there was a lot of uh angry people that were moving over to

00:03:24.220 them and i just think the the framing of the election the framing of the issues uh with the

00:03:30.120 help of the mainstream media was really favorable to justin trudeau and we kept him to him and kept him

00:03:35.880 to a minority and i think we're going to keep him on the ropes here if we let our leader do his

00:03:39.360 thing but don't you think that erin o'toole has to own a bit of that ppc rise and that he didn't 0.92

00:03:44.500 really seem to have a plan for defending against it and even in the last week of the campaign

00:03:49.900 wasn't really prepared to address that it was a thing and make an appeal beyond well we don't want

00:03:55.380 to split the vote well look i think that's one of the questions that needs to be answered in a

00:04:00.340 fulsome post-mortem that the party needs to do and the leaders agreed to do that so i would like to

00:04:05.380 see more data on on on that and also hear from them about what uh why certain decisions were made

00:04:11.440 uh to address the needs and concerns of those voters um what i would say is there's a certain

00:04:18.760 you know right now vaccines are a lightning rod issue and our party is uh has a wide range of views

00:04:26.120 on how uh the vaccination issue should be addressed and trudeau threw a grenade right in the middle of

00:04:32.240 our tent and i think quite honestly that his strategy was to let us split in half and erin o'toole

00:04:39.960 held most of the conservative movement together not all of it and uh and i think we got to figure out

00:04:45.660 how to hold all of it together but he held most of it together and i don't think we should underplay

00:04:50.300 that accomplishment well the other thing i would say is you know we we fell short in the overall result

00:04:56.760 and we fell fell short in certain key regions but you know we went up in ontario we went up in quebec

00:05:02.220 and i think as the leader pointed out i think there was uh 15 or 20 seats that are within 2 000 votes

00:05:08.160 so we are right there knocking on the door and i think uh you know the the economic trouble that's

00:05:15.000 coming for trudeau and i think inevitably with liberals the um accountability and ethics issues that

00:05:21.080 are going to inevitably arise are going to keep them on the ropes and so the last thing we want

00:05:25.980 to do as conservatives who are concerned with governing is head into a party civil war that's

00:05:31.620 going to be divisive and let trudeau off the mat let's keep them on the ropes keep fighting them

00:05:36.040 carbon tax uh perceived as a flip-flop firearms flip-flop in the middle of the campaign conscience

00:05:42.560 rights these are our three issues that have not sat well with a lot of people in the base

00:05:47.760 the carbon tax one is one of the items listed in the initial petition to recall

00:05:53.060 erin o'toole the one put forward by national councillor bert chen when you have this frustration

00:05:58.180 from groups that do make up a significant part of the conservative base and in general just from

00:06:02.840 conservatives how does erin o'toole hold on to his leadership how does he hold on to his legitimacy

00:06:08.780 when you have people pointing to a few not just a general frustration with losing but a few very

00:06:13.640 specific things that they feel amounted to betrayals well i think you at the end of the day you have to

00:06:20.380 trust that the leadership team is going to put together a plan that can appeal broadly to all

00:06:25.360 canadians and get us in a position to win a majority government this is not just about eking out a win

00:06:30.840 this is about getting to that 38 40 percent that we need to win a majority government and the reality

00:06:36.100 is canadians want a serious credible climate change plan and i know that there are some in our party

00:06:41.660 in our movement that don't agree with that um and i i don't know what to tell them other than you

00:06:47.620 know the voters have been very clear on that issue and i think we've found a way to uh in a way that's

00:06:53.940 fair to canadians and is not punishing rural canadians um and i think it's an improvement on the liberal

00:07:00.400 plan and uh and we should uh embrace the type of party leader that's willing to change the party and

00:07:07.260 move it forward but i mean changing the party though those terms will not sit well on their

00:07:12.600 own with people because you've got a lot of members of the conservative base that say okay you know yeah

00:07:16.780 we want to win and we obviously want to expand the base and respect that we're a big blue 10 but they

00:07:21.160 don't want the party to be changed in a way that leaves them out of it uh well and i and and frankly

00:07:28.140 i think the the polling would show that that's not what happened i think people uh by and large of the

00:07:34.040 of a conservative persuasion may have not loved every element of the plan but still voted conservative

00:07:39.920 i think the conservative base is still intact we won the popular vote um you know voter turnout was

00:07:45.620 down significantly so it's hard to look at raw vote numbers but we won the popular vote and we

00:07:51.900 increased our percentage of the vote in ontario and quebec so you know it was a tough election and

00:07:58.640 we wanted to win and uh it's always going to be disappointing when we don't but i i don't think

00:08:04.220 it's fair to say that that's a you know a lightning rod issue that caused us to lose since you brought

00:08:09.460 up just being at the doors and canvassing with your candidate for the campaign you managed what

00:08:14.440 were the biggest reasons or what was the biggest reason given to you by non-supporters people who said

00:08:19.840 yeah i'm not voting for you what was it that you saw on the ground wasn't resonating with people

00:08:24.320 uh i think the challenge the conservative party has and um that erin o'toole's got to figure out

00:08:31.960 an answer to is they just there are certain groups that just don't trust us yet we haven't earned their

00:08:38.280 support we're close we were in the mix and there were all kinds of you know the the undecided voter

00:08:43.160 and i think in the end too many of them swung back to the liberals and what i would say is you know

00:08:49.340 erin o'toole was uh elected leader of the party only a year before the rip dropped and the whole

00:08:55.800 year he was in was during a pandemic much of which was full lockdown so his ability to introduce

00:09:02.280 himself to canadians and get his message out and show people what the party is all about under erin

00:09:07.780 o'toole's leadership was very limited and i think considering all that stuff he actually did a great

00:09:12.440 job and once people got to know him in the election all of his numbers started to go up so i think

00:09:18.060 more of that and you know god willing uh less locked down society over the next year or two

00:09:24.200 will give him the runway to show what he's all about and i think by and large canadians have liked

00:09:29.540 it so far and will like him and warm up and continue to warm up to him uh so i think a lot of it is just

00:09:35.040 more time and more getting people comfortable with uh what we're all about i think people held their

00:09:42.080 nose to vote for trudeau this time because they weren't quite there with conservatives

00:09:45.580 and we need to keep getting out there and showing them that we are the best party and

00:09:50.660 and uh for for their interests and that we've got their back yeah unfamiliarity tends to be a big

00:09:57.900 hurdle for conservatives to overcome and you can look at a number of reasons for that mainstream

00:10:02.620 media's branding and maligning of conservatives being probably pretty high up on that list so

00:10:06.900 a very valid point the petition at change.org i support erin o'toole fraser mcdonald conservative

00:10:12.800 activist and former campaign manager joining me now fraser good to talk to you thanks for coming on

00:10:17.680 appreciate it andrew nice to see you thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show

00:10:22.260 support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news

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Juno News - September 25, 2021

Conservative activist launches petition calling for O'Toole to stay on as leader

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