Juno News - October 18, 2021What's going to happen to Erin O'Toole？
Episode Stats
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Summary
Aaron O'Toole's leadership is a hot topic in Canada right now. Is it time for him to step down as Conservative leader, or stay as leader? Should he stay, or should he go? Is it possible for a Tory leader to unseat Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, and who will be the next Prime Minister of Canada?
Transcript
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I know I can usually be trusted to have a pretty strong opinion on the big issues of the day that
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everyone's debating, but I have a confession to make that when it comes to one big issue that a
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whole lot of people have had strong opinions on, I'm kind of agnostic on it. I find the discussion
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actually a bit of a snore. And what is that question? It's the question of Aaron O'Toole's
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leadership. Should he stay or should he go? What do you mean, Fury? How can you be neutral on that
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question? How can you not care about it? It's such a big question. It's who's going to be next
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conservative leader? Will O'Toole stay as leader? Who's going to unseat Justin Trudeau? Who can be
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the next prime minister of this great G7 nation of ours? Yeah, of course, definitely. I get all of
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that. But here's why I find the issue a bit of a snooze. It's because I believe it works itself out
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on its own in the long run. What do I mean by that? Well, right now, or at least in the immediate
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aftermath of the election, there's a lot of urgency to get him out, push him out, get him out. We got
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to get a new leadership review in. But I think that when political parties really all across the
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Western world, because the Canadian Conservative Party is not unique to it, put a mechanism in place
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that by default means that when a leader loses an election, they must face a review. I think that's a
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really good thing. I think that should happen every single time. So Aaron O'Toole is going to face a
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review. Although I appreciate that some people are frustrated because that review may not come
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around for quite some time, over 12 months from now, and they believe that's not a sufficient
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time period. Okay, point taken. Then there is the Reform Act that was introduced that allows caucus
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to go and trigger a leadership review. And I support that being in place. And I think that's a great
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mechanism that they have. But then Aaron O'Toole, he is actually facing the challenge then of having to
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prove to his own caucus right now as to why he should remain leader. And he's going to have to
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do that every day. Everything he does, every interaction he has with staff, every interaction
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that he has with caucus members, it is still basically re-auditioning for the post. Because
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of course he knows that he did not win and that there are people out there who are now asking this
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question. So already O'Toole, by everything he says and does, he is actually doing something of a
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leadership review. And if more formal mechanisms are triggered, I think that's a good thing. Because
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let's be honest, if he can't corral the trust of his own party, of the supporters, of the grassroots,
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of the caucus, and so forth, well, then of course he cannot actually get the votes of the entire nation.
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So he's got to get the trust of the party. But right now he has to reach out to people. So formal
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mechanism or informal, I mean, that's what he's going to be doing. He has to be building that trust,
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continuing to build the base. And we're going to see as the months go by whether or not he has
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actually been successful in doing all of that. And I think the process, it does end up sorting
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itself out. Now, I agree with all of those people who have pointed out that he was a little bit too
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liberal light. And what you want is you want the contrast from Justin Trudeau. You don't want what's
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similar about the guy. You want what's the added value offer of the other person. So I did find it
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odd that the Conservatives felt the need to run towards a carbon tax rather than present an
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alternative to a carbon tax and fight the good fight as to why, hey guys, maybe we don't actually
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need a carbon tax in Canada, rather than just trying to trick people into thinking, oh, we have a sort of
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better form of carbon pricing than Justin Trudeau. So there are a lot of examples of why I think Aaron
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O'Toole could have done a better job. But at the same time, let's not forget that the Conservatives
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once again won the popular vote. It's not like all is lost and the party did not suffer some massive
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defeat as some people predicted it might have done. So as to the Aaron O'Toole leadership question,
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could he turn around like Stephen Harper and have lost one election and then come back, win the next
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one and being enduring prime minister for a full decade? Yes, I think Aaron O'Toole could do that.
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Or could we find that he's not actually able to corral support even in the months ahead,
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and he does not remain as the leader going into the next election? I think any of that
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is possible moving forward, and I think it's going to sort itself out and work itself out
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in the weeks and the months ahead, and that that too is going to be democracy in action.