The Candice Malcolm Show - Erin O’Toole alienates the Conservative base

00:00:00.040 Erin O'Toole is trying to quash dissent and silence his critics.

00:00:04.360 Now, his sycophants are telling us this is a sign of strength.

00:00:08.120 But from where I'm sitting, this looks a lot more like weakness.

00:00:10.520 I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

00:00:17.080 Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the show.

00:00:19.900 So we're going to focus again on the turmoil,

00:00:22.280 on the infighting within the Conservative Party of Canada today.

00:00:24.980 The latest news is that Erin O'Toole has ejected Senator batters

00:00:28.740 from caucus over the leadership review petition.

00:00:31.840 So as you know, Senator Denise Batters,

00:00:34.220 who is the Senator, Conservative Senator from Saskatchewan,

00:00:36.740 she was appointed by Stephen Harper,

00:00:38.760 and she called for a review of the leadership of Erin O'Toole,

00:00:43.480 and her position is completely valid.

00:00:45.520 So typically, there would be a leadership review following an unsuccessful election.

00:00:49.580 She points out she was on the Andrew Lawton Show yesterday,

00:00:51.860 and she pointed out that typically it would happen six months after a Conservative election loss.

00:00:57.100 So it happened with Stephen Harper, and it would have happened with Andrew Scheer

00:01:00.080 had Andrew Scheer not decided to resign before then.

00:01:02.840 So she's sort of just saying this is a typical process.

00:01:05.180 She's not calling for Erin O'Toole to be replaced.

00:01:07.800 She's only calling for him to be reviewed by the members.

00:01:11.600 This is scheduled to happen as it is,

00:01:13.720 but as it's scheduled, it won't happen until 2023,

00:01:16.840 which is a long time away.

00:01:18.320 So if you think about Justin Trudeau and his ability to call an election when he wants,

00:01:22.800 now hopefully Justin Trudeau will have learned his lesson and not do that again.

00:01:25.780 But theoretically, he could prompt another election.

00:01:28.860 During the last election, he said that it could happen anywhere within 18 months to two years.

00:01:33.820 And so if you think about that timeline, by 2023,

00:01:36.560 say that there is a leadership review at that time,

00:01:38.940 say the Conservative members say,

00:01:40.080 no, we don't like Erin O'Toole, we don't want him as our leader anymore.

00:01:43.020 And all of a sudden, that sparks another leadership review.

00:01:46.280 It's possible that Trudeau will wait until the exact moment

00:01:49.420 where the Conservative Party has a brand new leader that no one's ever heard of

00:01:52.820 or hasn't been out in the public, hasn't had the opportunity to sort of hone their skills

00:01:57.300 as leader of the party.

00:01:58.460 Trudeau launches another election campaign, and we could be stuck in the same situation.

00:02:02.260 So, you know, this is all just sort of a process.

00:02:04.900 But it's like, why wait until 2023?

00:02:07.160 The election just happened.

00:02:08.120 Why not let the members have their say right now?

00:02:10.560 It's completely reasonable.

00:02:12.360 That is, again, is eminently reasonable in this point.

00:02:15.520 And instead of sort of engaging with her or allowing this petition to go and see what happens,

00:02:21.920 Erin O'Toole basically, you know, within 24 hours of the senator launching this petition,

00:02:27.080 he said enough is enough and booted her out of the Conservative caucus.

00:02:30.900 So Senator Batters is no longer part of the Conservative caucus.

00:02:34.420 Erin O'Toole said this in a statement,

00:02:36.240 as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada,

00:02:37.800 I will not tolerate an individual discrediting and showing a clear lack of respect

00:02:42.640 towards the efforts of the entire Conservative caucus.

00:02:45.520 Who are holding the corrupt and disastrous Trudeau government to account.

00:02:49.740 Just eight weeks ago, Canadians elected Conservatives to hold Justin Trudeau accountable

00:02:53.620 for his economic management and fight the cost of living crisis,

00:02:57.480 skyrocketing inflation and supply chain issues that are crippling businesses.

00:03:01.420 That is our focus as a team.

00:03:03.900 So supposedly, again, you know, you see a lot of people on social media,

00:03:07.120 a lot of the people who support Erin O'Toole,

00:03:09.980 most of the people who are part of his payroll,

00:03:12.680 that's basically Erin O'Toole's base right now, 0.99

00:03:14.680 are the people who get paid to work for him.

00:03:17.620 But those people are all celebrating this as a sign of strength,

00:03:21.420 saying that Erin O'Toole will not tolerate any dissent from his party.

00:03:25.360 And that's supposed to make us like him even more.

00:03:28.220 Senator Batters, though, is fighting back.

00:03:30.020 She's continuing to push on her petition

00:03:32.460 because she wants the members to be able to have a say.

00:03:35.560 And she wrote this on Twitter, pretty, pretty shocking stuff.

00:03:38.220 She says tonight, Erin O'Toole tried to silence me

00:03:40.680 for giving our conservative members a voice.

00:03:43.000 I will not be silenced by a leader so weak that he fired me via voicemail.

00:03:48.080 Most importantly, he cannot suppress the will of our conservative party members sign the petition.

00:03:53.600 So apparently, according to Denise Batters,

00:03:56.080 Erin O'Toole let her know that he that he was firing her,

00:03:59.660 telling her that she was not part of the conservative caucus anymore.

00:04:02.560 He did it via voicemail.

00:04:03.460 So rather than trying to schedule a meeting with her to let her know face to face

00:04:07.760 that he was going to kick her out of caucus,

00:04:09.120 rather than making sure that he got her on the phone,

00:04:12.020 you know, talking to her assistant, making sure that she picked up the phone,

00:04:15.020 was part of her schedule that they could actually have a conversation.

00:04:18.800 No, instead, he just left her voicemail,

00:04:20.980 which, again, is the most passive, weak thing to do.

00:04:23.940 It's like you can't even face someone who is criticizing you.

00:04:27.600 So you kick them out of your party,

00:04:29.460 and you don't even have the courage to do it to their face.

00:04:32.340 So you leave it in a voicemail, which is a one-way form of communication.

00:04:35.960 So you don't give Denise Batters any opportunity to speak back to you.

00:04:40.000 That, to me, is incredibly, incredibly weak.

00:04:43.780 But again, the people around Erin O'Toole, the sycophants,

00:04:46.860 are cheering him on and, you know,

00:04:49.460 saying that somehow this is a sign of strength.

00:04:52.780 So here are the people who are defending Erin O'Toole.

00:04:55.880 This is his chief of staff, Dan Robertson.

00:04:58.040 He writes this, do not underestimate Erin O'Toole.

00:05:01.660 What, like, so again, this is supposed to be some kind of huge,

00:05:05.320 like, power move and a sign of strength.

00:05:07.520 Again, the criticisms from Denise Batters were more on the process side.

00:05:12.400 Again, she was talking about how members deserve to have a say

00:05:15.660 sooner rather than later, because if we wait for later,

00:05:18.300 and it turns out that the members don't like Erin O'Toole,

00:05:20.120 don't like the direction that he's taking the party,

00:05:21.920 it leaves us really vulnerable to having a brand new leader

00:05:25.100 right when Justin Trudeau could trigger an election.

00:05:27.400 So saying, let's do it sooner rather than later.

00:05:29.600 And then, of course, she does have some substantive, valid criticisms,

00:05:32.400 the same kind of stuff we've been talking about here on the Candace Malcolm Show,

00:05:35.460 about how Erin O'Toole presented himself one way during the leadership.

00:05:38.620 He claimed to be a common sense, authentic, true blue conservative.

00:05:42.420 And then, of course, during the election campaign,

00:05:44.400 he was absolutely anything but.

00:05:46.200 And tried to mimic Justin Trudeau as much as possible

00:05:49.520 in terms of his policies and in terms of where he stood on issues.

00:05:53.140 So there was substantive criticism.

00:05:55.080 There was also process criticism.

00:05:56.860 And the fact that Erin O'Toole just didn't want any of it kicked him out.

00:06:00.600 And then here you have Dan Robertson saying,

00:06:03.200 so do not underestimate Erin O'Toole, again,

00:06:05.080 just sort of like applauding him for this move

00:06:07.480 and maybe a warning sign to other conservatives,

00:06:10.900 you know, don't come out against Erin O'Toole

00:06:12.520 or he'll kick you out of the party.

00:06:14.120 More people defending Erin O'Toole, Senator Don Plett,

00:06:16.640 who is the leader of the conservatives in the Senate,

00:06:18.580 he tweeted this.

00:06:19.800 Tonight, Erin O'Toole has made the decision

00:06:21.540 to remove Senator Denise Batters from the National Caucus.

00:06:24.640 As always, I continue to support Erin O'Toole's

00:06:26.520 strong and principled leadership

00:06:27.500 to unite the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:06:30.040 Again, strange take because I don't know how this unites people.

00:06:32.880 Presumably, Denise Batters is not on her own here.

00:06:35.160 She's not acting out of turn.

00:06:36.580 She has a constituency.

00:06:38.460 She has a large base of people who support her.

00:06:40.600 I know she's a senator, so she's not elected. 0.99

00:06:42.620 She doesn't have constituents per se, 0.99

00:06:44.160 but she has a group of supporters.

00:06:45.660 She told Andrew Lawton on the show yesterday

00:06:47.500 that she had almost 2,000 signatures already

00:06:51.040 in just one day after launching this petition.

00:06:53.640 We are told that there are other MPs and caucus members

00:06:56.420 who are going to come out in support of this caucus.

00:06:59.300 And, you know, just as someone who observes federal politics,

00:07:02.300 as someone who follows this stuff pretty closely,

00:07:04.280 Denise Batters is one of the more active Conservative senators. 0.69

00:07:07.300 She's very active on social media.

00:07:09.080 She's involved in a lot of issues.

00:07:10.620 She's very vocal.

00:07:11.400 She seems to be very well-liked among her colleagues.

00:07:14.000 She's sort of part of the in-crowd of Conservative MPs and senators.

00:07:18.520 And so the idea that kicking her out

00:07:20.500 somehow unites the Conservative Party of Canada,

00:07:22.840 I'm confused.

00:07:23.660 I don't really understand how kicking out a critic unites people.

00:07:27.240 Because from where I'm standing,

00:07:28.680 again, it looks more like you're alienating more people.

00:07:31.480 You're upsetting more people.

00:07:32.540 A lot of people want to have a say

00:07:33.860 over whether or not Aaron O'Toole should continue to leave this party.

00:07:36.620 Given that he has had such a drastic change

00:07:38.860 in the direction that he's taking the party,

00:07:40.700 why would kicking somebody out

00:07:42.080 who's just voicing the feelings and the sentiment

00:07:45.060 that exists among a large part of the Conservative base,

00:07:48.020 I'm assuming it's a large part

00:07:49.420 because of the number of people

00:07:50.980 who I've talked to and heard from

00:07:52.760 who are saying the exact same things

00:07:54.360 that Denise Batters is saying,

00:07:55.720 the sentiment is out there.

00:07:57.340 So, you know, you can knock people off.

00:07:59.200 You can kick Bert Chan,

00:08:00.100 the national councillor who launched his own position.

00:08:02.260 He's gone.

00:08:03.020 You can kick out Denise Batters,

00:08:04.300 but you're not doing anything

00:08:05.700 to address the dissent that exists.

00:08:07.420 In fact, when you kick out people

00:08:09.080 who are trying to speak out and blow the whistle,

00:08:11.440 you make those dissenters angrier.

00:08:12.960 You make people feel less connected

00:08:14.980 and less like they have a say.

00:08:16.160 Again, this is not strength.

00:08:17.700 This is showing how out of control the party is

00:08:20.300 and how incapable Aaron O'Toole is at managing it.

00:08:23.700 Next, we hear from Rob Bathurston,

00:08:26.120 who apparently is the president

00:08:27.240 of the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:08:28.140 I've never heard of this guy before in my life,

00:08:29.840 but he says this,

00:08:31.200 I am shocked that nobody wants to talk to me

00:08:32.920 about Aaron O'Toole's BC tour,

00:08:34.840 Pierre Polyev's fight against inflation,

00:08:36.660 Michelle Rumpel's standing up

00:08:38.160 for Canada's energy sector,

00:08:39.780 or Eric Duncan's holding the Liberals accountable

00:08:42.500 to end the blood ban smiley face.

00:08:45.420 So I guess what he's trying to say here

00:08:46.940 is that the Conservative MPs are out

00:08:48.580 doing all of this amazing stuff to save Canada

00:08:50.880 and to fight back against Justin Trudeau.

00:08:52.820 And instead, the media focuses on infighting.

00:08:56.080 Look, I'm probably one of the most critical people

00:08:58.220 of the media out in the country.

00:09:00.440 And when it comes to this stuff,

00:09:01.900 I mean, give me a break.

00:09:03.220 Aaron O'Toole's BC tour,

00:09:04.820 the fact that no one's covering Aaron O'Toole's BC tour

00:09:07.360 is because it's not really newsworthy.

00:09:09.280 Like I looked at his itinerary

00:09:10.700 and I'll tell you what he did when he's in BC.

00:09:13.720 So he's out in Vancouver Island

00:09:14.720 and this is what he did.

00:09:15.560 According to his Twitter profile,

00:09:16.980 he took a picture with the Terry Fox statue

00:09:18.880 on November 15th.

00:09:20.100 He met with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

00:09:23.060 He met with the BC Urban Mayor's Caucus.

00:09:26.140 And he tweeted about the flooding in British Columbia.

00:09:29.860 Okay, so just kind of normal politician stuff.

00:09:33.140 This isn't really like groundbreaking.

00:09:34.980 Like, look at how Aaron O'Toole is saving the country.

00:09:37.160 He's out in BC doing all this amazing stuff.

00:09:39.380 It's like he's just out there glad handing,

00:09:41.360 trying to network,

00:09:42.300 trying to build up his own popularity

00:09:43.880 among other politicians.

00:09:46.100 I mean, you can hardly blame the media

00:09:47.580 for not covering this stuff.

00:09:48.600 I mean, it's not exactly riveting stuff.

00:09:50.480 As far as Pierre Polyev's fight against inflation,

00:09:53.000 I completely agree.

00:09:53.780 Pierre does a very good job addressing this issue

00:09:56.500 by discussing the problem.

00:09:57.740 He's very articulate at understanding

00:09:59.620 what the problem is and explaining it

00:10:01.740 in a way to help people understand

00:10:03.520 how it's connected

00:10:04.280 to the Trudeau government's fiscal policies.

00:10:06.800 But when it comes to inflation in general,

00:10:08.880 it's not Pierre Polyev's job

00:10:10.860 to articulate what the Conservative Party

00:10:13.100 would do differently.

00:10:14.340 That's Aaron O'Toole's job.

00:10:15.580 So Pierre explains the problems.

00:10:17.140 But then when it comes to a solution,

00:10:18.840 that still falls to the feet of Aaron O'Toole.

00:10:21.260 And his position on inflation,

00:10:23.240 his position on spending,

00:10:24.660 on deficit spending,

00:10:25.820 on monetary policy,

00:10:27.120 it really isn't that much different than Justin Trudeau.

00:10:29.480 And this is part of the problem.

00:10:30.440 This is why Aaron O'Toole has alienated

00:10:32.920 so many people in the Conservative base

00:10:34.680 because during the last election,

00:10:36.580 he talked about continuing wanting to spend

00:10:39.420 like there's no tomorrow

00:10:40.300 to carry out Justin Trudeau's COVID relief spending.

00:10:43.440 And he didn't really have concrete plans

00:10:45.500 for reigning in spending or how he would do it.

00:10:48.060 That wasn't what he was about.

00:10:49.440 So the idea that somehow Aaron O'Toole

00:10:51.400 would be like totally different than Justin Trudeau

00:10:53.540 when it comes to spending and inflation,

00:10:55.660 well, that's just wrong.

00:10:56.520 That's just wrong.

00:10:57.040 And so that's why maybe people aren't excited

00:10:59.120 about the Conservatives' own fiscal perspective

00:11:01.100 because it's like their policies

00:11:02.860 aren't that different from the Liberals.

00:11:04.060 And then when it comes to Michelle Rumpel

00:11:05.860 standing up for the energy sector,

00:11:07.340 we know from that Facebook Live video

00:11:09.520 where Michelle Rumpel was complaining

00:11:10.940 about how Denise Batters ruined her week

00:11:13.280 because she had all these meetings planned

00:11:14.740 and all these media appearances planned.

00:11:16.300 And then the media wanted to cover the infighting instead.

00:11:19.140 And she was complaining about that.

00:11:20.980 You know, we know that she's out there

00:11:22.180 making deals and stuff.

00:11:23.200 But again, the Liberals have been in power for five years.

00:11:25.280 During those five years, the West, Western Canada,

00:11:28.140 and specifically the energy sector

00:11:30.380 have been a punching bag for the Trudeau Liberals.

00:11:33.260 And I'm sorry to say, but I don't really know

00:11:34.600 what the Conservatives are doing to change that

00:11:36.560 or to make that different.

00:11:37.640 It's not like they've assembled some huge coalition

00:11:39.780 of Western Canadian leaders and oil sands leaders

00:11:42.240 and people to fight back against Trudeau.

00:11:44.220 They're just, again, kind of out there glad-handing

00:11:46.200 and giving speeches and lots and lots of rhetoric,

00:11:49.520 but very few solutions.

00:11:50.720 And when it comes to the actual policy of Aaron O'Toole,

00:11:54.100 again, he's for carbon tax.

00:11:56.240 So the idea that somehow Aaron O'Toole

00:11:58.060 is substantially different than Justin Trudeau

00:12:00.600 when it comes to the cost of living stuff,

00:12:02.260 when it comes to inflation stuff,

00:12:03.340 even when it comes to the oil sector in Western Canada,

00:12:06.120 I'm sorry, but just because you're out there

00:12:08.580 criticizing Trudeau doesn't mean

00:12:10.320 you're actually doing something.

00:12:11.340 When it comes to the substance,

00:12:12.720 I don't see a lot of difference.

00:12:13.980 And then as far as Eric Duncan

00:12:15.520 holding the Liberals accountable to end the bloodbath,

00:12:17.520 I don't know how, you know, naming the top four priorities

00:12:20.920 of the conservative opposition,

00:12:23.540 that this would even be in the top four.

00:12:25.500 I mean, to me, it sort of shows

00:12:27.180 how out of touch the conservatives are,

00:12:29.460 that out of touch, this elite conservative.

00:12:31.700 I mean, look at this guy.

00:12:32.500 He's the president of the Conservative Party.

00:12:34.000 He's from Nova Scotia,

00:12:35.540 and he's got his pronouns in his bio.

00:12:38.180 The only people I know who put their pronouns in their bios

00:12:40.600 are like the most extreme social justice left-wing people.

00:12:44.040 So I don't really know who this guy is trying to appeal to.

00:12:46.460 I don't really understand why this is one of the priorities

00:12:48.520 of the party.

00:12:49.620 But regardless, this party is so out of touch.

00:12:52.500 And I wanted to show you this one response again.

00:12:54.400 I'm really not one to defend the legacy media,

00:12:57.100 but this is pretty spot on.

00:12:58.500 This is David Akin, the bureau chief over at Global News.

00:13:01.580 He says this,

00:13:02.220 No one in the opposition leader's office comm shop

00:13:05.360 is A, responding to our queries,

00:13:07.360 or B, told us O'Toole was going to be C.

00:13:10.100 Also, check your DMs, Rob,

00:13:11.660 because we've been trying to reach you too.

00:13:14.020 Pierre and Michelle, on the other hand,

00:13:15.260 run their own comms,

00:13:16.320 and we've been talking lots about both of them.

00:13:19.180 So sick burn from David Akin over at Global News,

00:13:22.320 because here you have a conservative guy

00:13:24.960 complaining that the media is not covering

00:13:26.820 all this important stuff he's doing.

00:13:29.140 Meantime, it turns out that the guy

00:13:30.560 doesn't even respond to emails.

00:13:32.440 What an amateur joke this conservative party

00:13:34.900 is looking like from the outside here.

00:13:37.400 And lots of people rightfully critiquing Aaron O'Toole

00:13:39.780 for this weird show.

00:13:41.820 So our friend JJ McCullough, YouTuber

00:13:43.340 and a Washington Post columnist,

00:13:45.820 says first,

00:13:46.920 You're going to just purge and silence people

00:13:48.680 who have different opinions, Mr. O'Toole.

00:13:50.800 Then he goes on to say,

00:13:51.680 You know, at the end of the day,

00:13:52.480 the Conservative Party of Canada only really has one job,

00:13:54.840 and it's nominating a leader

00:13:55.880 who can get elected prime minister.

00:13:57.320 If the party has failed to do this,

00:13:58.940 and they have,

00:13:59.720 then they have to resolve this glaring problem

00:14:01.820 before anything else.

00:14:03.160 Very, very good point.

00:14:04.640 JJ, Sheila Gunn-Ree,

00:14:06.280 the Alberta Bureau Chief over at Rebel News,

00:14:08.400 likewise makes a great point.

00:14:09.800 She says this,

00:14:10.920 Self-admiring yet failed leader

00:14:12.440 who can't seem to handle any sort of criticism

00:14:14.820 fires a woman for standing up to him. 0.87

00:14:17.120 Could be Trudeau.

00:14:17.920 Today it's Aaron O'Toole.

00:14:19.120 What an absolute disgrace.

00:14:21.300 My colleague Andrew Lawton makes a great point as well.

00:14:23.180 He says in 2017,

00:14:24.240 Andrew Scheer appointed almost every one of his leadership opponents

00:14:27.800 to his shadow cabinet.

00:14:29.360 Of Aaron O'Toole's three leadership opponents,

00:14:31.560 one was kicked from caucus,

00:14:32.700 that's Derek Sloan,

00:14:33.680 one was discouraged from running,

00:14:35.120 that was Peter McKay,

00:14:36.040 and one was elected to the House of Commons,

00:14:37.760 but was snubbed from the shadow cabinet,

00:14:39.720 that was Leslie Lewis.

00:14:40.580 So again, we're told that this is all a great sign of strength

00:14:43.800 from Aaron O'Toole,

00:14:44.980 but he's really alienating a lot of people around him.

00:14:47.680 And so all of this just sort of makes me wonder about Aaron O'Toole.

00:14:51.640 Like, at this point, what exactly is his base?

00:14:54.640 Okay, when you think of the base of the Conservative Party,

00:14:56.900 you sort of have the social and moral conservatives.

00:14:58.960 They live across the country, more in the suburbs.

00:15:02.140 You have the fiscal conservatives and the libertarians.

00:15:05.560 You have the sort of Western Canada bloc,

00:15:07.780 who just wants democratic reform,

00:15:10.120 and they want more autonomy for places like Alberta and Saskatchewan.

00:15:13.580 And then you have this sort of downtown urban type Tories,

00:15:18.060 Red Tory crowd.

00:15:19.360 And so if you go through each of these groups,

00:15:22.060 you see how they're alienated.

00:15:23.740 What is Aaron O'Toole trying to do to appease social conservatives?

00:15:27.380 I don't know.

00:15:27.840 The thing that he seemed most excited about during the election,

00:15:30.500 the thing he was most passionate about at times,

00:15:32.860 seemed to be how he was talking about

00:15:34.560 how he was a pro-choice liberal, just like Justin Trudeau.

00:15:37.360 So I don't really see him gaining ground

00:15:39.600 or holding that so-con base.

00:15:41.280 When it comes to libertarians and fiscal conservatives,

00:15:44.020 as I said, Aaron O'Toole was planning to run deficits

00:15:46.880 and spend just as much as Justin Trudeau.

00:15:49.120 And when it comes to civil liberties and the libertarians,

00:15:52.120 I mean, he made it pretty clear

00:15:53.120 that he didn't want anything to do with people who opposed vaccines.

00:15:56.460 And he was more than pushing them over to Maxime Bernier's camp.

00:16:00.420 But then when it comes to red Tories

00:16:01.800 and the more traditional progressive conservative voters,

00:16:04.620 well, first of all, he pushed Peter McKay basically out of the party

00:16:07.740 and said that he didn't want anything to do with them.

00:16:09.360 They had a weird petty squabble during the leadership race

00:16:11.880 where they were suing each other.

00:16:13.300 But then also Denise Batters, 1.00

00:16:14.580 she comes from that sort of red Tory camp.

00:16:17.140 She was a progressive conservative before the parties aligned

00:16:19.600 and she supported Peter McKay in the last election.

00:16:22.120 So it's not like Denise Batters is some far-right kook. 0.99

00:16:26.000 She's actually part of the progressive wing of the party.

00:16:30.040 And so again, it's just so weird for them to be pushing her out,

00:16:33.700 pushing out a strong woman,

00:16:35.060 pushing out someone who is part of that group.

00:16:37.620 It doesn't really resonate.

00:16:39.140 And so we're kind of left looking at the party and wondering,

00:16:42.080 like, what is Aaron O'Toole's constituents?

00:16:44.360 What kind of conservative is he?

00:16:45.760 It's hard to tell because he's flip-flops so much,

00:16:47.600 we don't really know what he stands for.

00:16:49.020 But also, I don't really know at this point

00:16:50.860 what part of the party is there to support him.

00:16:53.380 And I think that that is the reason

00:16:54.660 why he's so worried about facing the base,

00:16:57.200 facing the members.

00:16:57.960 He doesn't want a leadership review

00:16:59.120 because he probably doesn't have their support,

00:17:01.300 or at least it's hard to see at this point

00:17:03.540 how he possibly could.

00:17:04.940 And I think that is the reason why he's so afraid

00:17:07.900 to face the members, face the base.

00:17:09.760 He doesn't want a leadership review

00:17:10.900 because he's alienated so many different parts of the party.

00:17:13.840 It's hard to imagine that he still has the support

00:17:17.240 of the critical mass of conservative members

00:17:19.640 after the way that he has treated so many different people.

00:17:22.480 That's the real reason why he doesn't want

00:17:24.440 to face leadership review.

00:17:25.880 That's why he's acting out and kicking anyone

00:17:27.540 who disagrees with him out of caucus.

00:17:29.080 I don't think it's sustainable.

00:17:30.240 I don't think it's going to last.

00:17:31.120 I don't think things are looking good

00:17:32.380 for Erin O'Toole as leader of the Conservative Party.

00:17:34.700 I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

The Candice Malcolm Show - November 17, 2021

Erin O’Toole alienates the Conservative base

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