The Candice Malcolm Show - O’Toole blames Trudeau’s divisive campaign for CPC loss

00:00:00.080 Aaron O'Toole survives as leader of the Conservative Party, but he doubles down on a losing strategy and blames everyone but himself for the loss.

00:00:07.360 I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

00:00:14.120 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in.

00:00:16.080 You probably saw the news that Aaron O'Toole survived the caucus meeting yesterday.

00:00:20.060 It was the first caucus meeting since the election, since the disappointing election result for the Conservatives and the Conservative leader.

00:00:26.280 There was some speculation that the party was going to dump Aaron O'Toole yesterday.

00:00:31.060 They didn't do that.

00:00:32.180 As I talk about on the show, there really isn't the appetite in the Conservative Party right now to have another leadership review, have another leadership race that could potentially divide the party even further.

00:00:42.680 It isn't obvious that there's anyone else in the party that would be suitable for leader at this point.

00:00:47.800 So a lot of MPs that I've been speaking to, a lot of Conservative insiders, are sort of just resigned to the fact that even though O'Toole didn't do a great job, even though there were a lot of problems with his campaign, better, again, to stick with the devil that you know than the devil that you don't know.

00:01:02.020 And I think that there is so much uncertainty with a leadership race that it's probably a good strategy.

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00:01:46.600 So I just want to quickly go back to talk about some of the predictions that we were seeing going into this meeting.

00:01:52.400 David Akin, I talked about this on the show yesterday.

00:01:54.660 He made this bizarre prediction talking to an insider.

00:01:57.880 He said, here's a kicker about Tuesday's caucus meeting.

00:02:00.860 Aaron O'Toole, an insider says, is looking to take a snap caucus vote on his leadership, a public vote.

00:02:06.740 Stand up if you're with me.

00:02:07.940 Stand up if you're against me.

00:02:09.080 But behind closed doors.

00:02:10.500 Interesting.

00:02:11.080 So I brought this up yesterday because I said this isn't the case.

00:02:15.000 It would have no validity.

00:02:16.960 And, you know, if he were to do that, it would be quite the power move.

00:02:20.500 But I couldn't imagine him doing that.

00:02:23.000 Well, David Akin seems to have heard similarly because he quickly hedged his own prediction here and he wrote this.

00:02:29.420 Other insiders say that such a vote would be procedurally impossible.

00:02:33.260 So stay tuned.

00:02:34.200 Could have an exciting day of procedural back and forth.

00:02:37.420 See, the idea that procedural back and forth is exciting.

00:02:41.460 Only a journalist could say something like that.

00:02:44.700 Well, of course, this just simply didn't happen.

00:02:46.560 It was not.

00:02:47.640 Whoever was telling David Akin was mistaken and this did not happen.

00:02:51.260 And there was no such vote.

00:02:52.680 There was no such power move.

00:02:54.180 Aaron O'Toole did not do this.

00:02:55.960 So I just wanted to make note of that.

00:02:58.280 But let's talk about what did happen.

00:02:59.800 So, yes, it was the first time that all of the conservative MPs got together in Ottawa.

00:03:04.680 And it seemed like more or less they had a united front around their guy, around Aaron O'Toole as leader.

00:03:10.900 We heard a lot of MPs just voicing their support.

00:03:14.080 But interestingly, there were a few sort of outliers.

00:03:16.740 So we will get to those later in the show.

00:03:19.020 But I want to first focus on Aaron O'Toole, focus on his understanding of what went wrong, the way that he is treating this loss.

00:03:27.220 Because one of the things that he did emphasize, I think there's two important things that he emphasized.

00:03:31.260 He has been talking about how they're going to do a really full postmortem of the campaign, look into what went wrong, really dissect the numbers, try to understand how the strategy failed and where they can improve upon it.

00:03:44.520 So that's a good sign.

00:03:45.660 That's exactly what they should be doing after an election, after a disappointing election like this.

00:03:50.520 But then he's also sort of doubling down on his rhetoric, on this idea that conservatives need to be more progressive, that the party needs to fundamentally change in order to win and appeal to a broader collection of Canadians.

00:04:05.900 So first I want to focus in on Aaron O'Toole, look at what he was saying yesterday, how he was communicating, and what lessons he's really taking away from this election.

00:04:14.920 We've heard him say several times now that he's going to do a full review of the campaign, really dive into the numbers, try to understand the strategy, what went wrong, really hold the mirror up.

00:04:25.100 And that's good.

00:04:25.760 That's what we want to hear from a leader.

00:04:27.280 We want him to acknowledge that the strategy that he took failed, that it didn't win over Canadians, that his calculation to move to the centre, run as more of a liberal, try to hug Justin Trudeau on as many issues as possible, and really avoid any of the sort of pitfalls that the media and the liberals set up for conservatives.

00:04:48.000 He did a decent job of not falling into those, but he ended up mirroring Justin Trudeau so closely that there just wasn't a compelling reason to vote for him because he didn't differentiate himself enough from the liberal party.

00:05:00.640 So this is, I'm going to play first a clip of Aaron O'Toole walking into caucus meetings.

00:05:04.580 So this is before he knew his fate as party leader.

00:05:07.480 He probably had an idea that caucus supported him, but really anything could happen at a meeting like this.

00:05:12.100 So this is what Aaron O'Toole looked like prior to caucus, and this is what he was saying.

00:05:16.360 Let's play this clip.

00:05:18.000 If the leader is not the problem, then what is the problem?

00:05:21.360 Why is the message of the Conservative Party not resonating with Canadians, and what do you need to do moving forward to make sure that happens?

00:05:30.060 Well, in an election and a pandemic, I know how, you all know how much the election costs, so I won't get into that, but there were two parties that divided Canadians, that misled Canadians, that had very deceptive and quite frankly alarming campaigns, Mr. Trudeau's and Mr. Bernier.

00:05:45.920 We did not. We tried to respect people.

00:05:48.800 We tried to encourage a vaccination level of 90% by working together, not by dividing people.

00:05:54.880 So I think Mr. Trudeau, who's already let Canadians down again in his first 10 days, he has more lessons to learn than we do.

00:06:01.860 So there you go. Justin Trudeau has more lessons to learn than we do.

00:06:07.580 So Aaron O'Toole isn't really taking responsibility.

00:06:10.600 He's saying that the reason that the Conservatives didn't do very well was because what?

00:06:15.360 Because he thought that the Liberals were divisive and Maxim Bernier was divisive, and they weren't.

00:06:19.940 So again, blaming other people as opposed to himself and doubling down and saying that Trudeau has more to learn from this election than he does.

00:06:26.040 Well, I'm sorry, that's not true because Justin Trudeau is prime minister.

00:06:29.360 So yes, we all wish that Justin Trudeau was a little bit more self-aware, a little bit more humble, showed more humility in his day-to-day life.

00:06:36.660 But Justin Trudeau doesn't need to sit down and dissect what happened in the election because he won.

00:06:41.080 He has the power. He's prime minister.

00:06:42.720 He will likely be prime minister for the next four years, just given all of the dynamics in Ottawa.

00:06:47.500 So it is Aaron O'Toole who has to do the reflection, who has to learn the lessons.

00:06:52.640 So the idea, again, that he's just sort of blaming Trudeau, walking into caucus there, that's a little disconcerting.

00:07:00.100 And yes, we all like to see an opposition leader dunk on the prime minister, and that's part of the job.

00:07:05.000 But really, today is a day, yesterday is a day, but as O'Toole was walking in, you know, it's a day that you reflect on your own party.

00:07:11.980 You talk about the reasons that you lost.

00:07:13.800 And I get the fact that you don't want to pour your heart out to the media.

00:07:17.020 You don't really want to tell them the inner thinking of your party and your own strategy, even if he acknowledges that he ran too far to the left,

00:07:26.200 that he made strategic mistakes in selling out conservative principles and values.

00:07:30.280 I don't really expect him to say this to the media, but I wanted to show you this video to contrast it with the next video.

00:07:37.820 So the first one was O'Toole walking into caucus before he had had an earful from all of the MPs.

00:07:44.840 The whole purpose of caucus is to hear from the members, listen to what they have to say.

00:07:50.780 They tell you what their constituents think.

00:07:52.380 What are you hearing on the ground across the country?

00:07:54.880 What are conservatives and voters saying to us?

00:07:57.940 So going into caucus, you would expect that he would have a different tune coming out of caucus because he would be much wiser.

00:08:04.220 He would have heard all this feedback from his MPs.

00:08:07.360 He would understand what people in different parts of the country were thinking, and perhaps he would have reflected on that and had a different sort of answer.

00:08:15.080 But instead, I'm going to show you a clip from his press conference, which happened after caucus, after the meeting.

00:08:20.140 So like I said, he didn't face any kind of a leadership review.

00:08:23.040 There was no revolt.

00:08:23.900 There was nothing that we heard that said that it was really bad.

00:08:27.100 One MP that I spoke to said that this meeting was a lot calmer and a lot more united than the 2019 caucus after the election, where I'm told it was really divisive.

00:08:39.100 It was horrible.

00:08:40.160 There were knives coming out and people were just completely lashing out at then leader.

00:08:45.900 Andrew Scheer, that didn't happen yesterday.

00:08:47.340 It was calmer.

00:08:47.900 The party is more united around Aaron O'Toole at this moment, but still, presumably, he would have something different to say after the press conference.

00:08:56.820 This is a minute-long clip where a reporter asks Aaron O'Toole specifically, why did you lose the election?

00:09:02.940 Why did you lose the election?

00:09:04.140 And I want you to pay close attention to what Aaron O'Toole says here.

00:09:07.300 You know, this morning, there were a number of MPs that we spoke to who said that they were upset about how you manage the campaign and that the party actually lost seats.

00:09:14.280 You're saying today that you're taking responsibility and nobody is more disappointed than yourself.

00:09:19.300 So in what way do you think the party needs to change?

00:09:22.500 What do you think went wrong in the last election and what are you going to be doing differently?

00:09:27.840 I am responsible and I accept that responsibility.

00:09:31.660 We fell short when I had a plan for us to win the confidence of more Canadians.

00:09:35.580 We fell short.

00:09:36.760 The simple reason for why that happened is Mr. Trudeau used the pandemic to divide Canadians.

00:09:42.640 We did not.

00:09:43.600 Did we pay a price for it?

00:09:45.640 Perhaps we did.

00:09:46.840 That's part of the review that Mr. Cummings will undertake to make sure that we can win the confidence of Canadians,

00:09:52.880 not by dividing them or scaring them, as Mr. Trudeau has, but by planning for the future of this great country for all Canadians.

00:09:59.540 And I invite Canadians that were close to voting for us a few weeks ago to stay tuned.

00:10:04.560 The Conservative Party is going to fight for your interests in this parliament.

00:10:08.020 So I really want to dissect what he says here.

00:10:11.000 He says that he takes responsibility for the loss, that he understands, and that at the end of the day, yes, he is responsible.

00:10:16.860 So that's good.

00:10:17.680 He recognizes that.

00:10:18.900 Then he transitioned.

00:10:20.120 And he says that the simple, there's a simple reason, everybody.

00:10:23.680 There's a simple reason, a simple reason, one reason why the Conservatives lost the campaign.

00:10:29.220 And that is, what was it?

00:10:31.100 Not that he ran a weak campaign.

00:10:32.580 Not that he flip-flopped.

00:10:33.880 Not that he, we didn't really know what he stood for or who he was.

00:10:37.720 Not that he tried to appeal too hard to left-wing voters and ended up sacrificing Conservative voters.

00:10:43.960 No, no, no.

00:10:44.380 The simple reason, everybody, the simple reason why Aaron O'Toole lost the election was that the Liberal Party divided Canadians,

00:10:52.840 and that he did not, and that he paid a price for that.

00:10:55.240 I'm just going to play this clip one more time, this one part of it, because it's really, really remarkable.

00:11:00.060 The simple reason for why that happened is Mr. Trudeau used the pandemic to divide Canadians.

00:11:06.280 We did not.

00:11:07.560 Did we pay a price for it?

00:11:09.000 Perhaps we did.

00:11:09.740 So what are we supposed to take away from this, that Aaron O'Toole was too positive on the campaign trail,

00:11:15.540 that the Liberals went negative, that the Liberals were really being divisive,

00:11:20.420 and that that's why they won, because Canadians like that kind of thing,

00:11:23.940 and that if the Conservatives had been divisive as well, then they would have won.

00:11:27.720 That's the simple reason.

00:11:29.160 That's the simple reason why the Liberals won,

00:11:32.580 because Aaron O'Toole took the Michelle Obama route, where they go low and we go high,

00:11:37.500 and Canadians just didn't like that,

00:11:38.580 and so they rewarded Justin Trudeau for going low.

00:11:41.080 I don't know if Aaron O'Toole misspoke here, but that was a brutal answer to me.

00:11:44.600 The whole idea, the simple reason that you lost was because the Liberals were negative and Canadians like that.

00:11:51.320 No, that's not the simple reason that you lost, Aaron O'Toole.

00:11:54.080 I've got news for you.

00:11:54.900 The simple reason that you lost is because you didn't run a very good campaign.

00:11:58.500 So like I said, the general mood among caucus, I'm told I wasn't there.

00:12:04.140 Obviously, it was just behind closed doors for members only,

00:12:07.240 for Conservative Members of Parliament only, but from what I hear talking to people who are in the room.

00:12:11.940 Overall, people support Aaron O'Toole.

00:12:13.720 They want to give him another shot.

00:12:15.240 But I want to play a couple of interesting clips.

00:12:17.420 The media were really hounding MPs walking into the door,

00:12:20.420 and so it was interesting to hear what they had to say, to see what they had to say.

00:12:24.560 I want to play a clip of Pierre Polyev.

00:12:26.880 Everyone's looking at Polyev because it's no secret.

00:12:29.600 He is incredibly popular among the base.

00:12:31.780 He's very strong, he's very well-spoken, he's great on social media, and people like him.

00:12:36.240 People think that maybe this guy is a leader-in-waiting,

00:12:39.820 and so everybody is trying to find out what is Pierre Polyev saying and doing.

00:12:43.680 Is he gearing towards launching his own kind of a campaign?

00:12:47.460 So let's play this clip of Pierre walking into caucus because it's pretty amusing.

00:12:52.260 Do you support Mr. O'Toole's leader?

00:12:54.620 Of course.

00:12:55.500 Why?

00:12:56.960 Because he's the legitimate leader of the party?

00:12:59.060 May I ask people possibly give you an issue?

00:13:00.920 I already answered that, I said yes.

00:13:02.560 What do you think are some of the things the party needs to do differently to win in the next election?

00:13:05.660 We need to be the single strongest voice against the inflation tax.

00:13:10.960 The single biggest issue going forward in this country

00:13:13.780 is the way that this government is driving up inflation by flooding the economy with cheap cash.

00:13:19.540 What that is doing is pricing young people out of housing,

00:13:23.140 seniors out of groceries,

00:13:25.100 and Canadians out of the basic goods that they need to survive.

00:13:28.600 That is the single most important issue.

00:13:31.120 We are the only party that can tackle inflation,

00:13:34.340 get government spending under control,

00:13:35.980 and secure the financial future of Canadians.

00:13:39.060 So again, the journalists are hounding him asking,

00:13:42.320 do you support Aaron O'Toole as leader?

00:13:44.040 He says, yeah, of course.

00:13:45.200 And they go, why?

00:13:46.220 He says, because he's a legitimate leader of the party.

00:13:48.520 I mean, I think he's kind of making fun of the reporters here, 1.00

00:13:51.700 because it's such a stupid question. 1.00

00:13:52.920 Like, do you support the leader of the party? 1.00

00:13:54.580 Yes.

00:13:55.060 Why?

00:13:55.760 Because he's the leader of the party.

00:13:57.020 Like, that's how party politics works.

00:13:59.460 You could take your own interpretation from that.

00:14:02.000 But what I found amusing was that he sort of,

00:14:04.400 Pierre said twice, yes, obviously, I support Aaron O'Toole.

00:14:06.820 I support Aaron O'Toole.

00:14:07.840 And then they say, what needs to be done differently?

00:14:09.680 And he kind of turns around,

00:14:11.240 and he launches this whole campaign tirade

00:14:14.460 about inflation and how that needs to be the major issue,

00:14:17.720 which is something that we barely heard from Aaron O'Toole

00:14:20.140 on the campaign trail.

00:14:21.260 You know, this is Pierre's issue.

00:14:22.660 This is something that he owns,

00:14:23.800 that he's very, very knowledgeable about.

00:14:25.640 I had him on our show a couple of days before the election

00:14:28.140 just to talk about this issue,

00:14:29.340 because he knows more about it than anyone,

00:14:31.320 and he's really strong on it.

00:14:32.460 So here he's saying, yes, it's for Aaron O'Toole,

00:14:35.780 but then he kind of launches his own,

00:14:37.780 almost like a campaign speech,

00:14:39.900 as if he were the one who was running for leader.

00:14:42.160 And he gives a compelling, powerful speech,

00:14:44.420 which again is why so many conservatives like him

00:14:46.860 and would like to see him.

00:14:48.420 And another interesting interview was with Lesley Lewis.

00:14:51.900 Now, Kian Beckstein, an independent reporter,

00:14:54.560 was in Ottawa, and I'll just read his tweet

00:14:56.500 because it's right on the nose.

00:14:57.740 He says,

00:14:58.400 for some reason, I was the only reporter

00:15:00.020 to speak to Dr. Lesley Lewis on her way into caucus.

00:15:02.660 I asked her what she would do differently

00:15:03.920 than O'Toole if she was leader,

00:15:05.180 which, you know, you saw the mob of people

00:15:06.820 going after Pierre Polyev and all the journalists,

00:15:09.840 trying to ask him questions.

00:15:11.860 I'll show you in a minute

00:15:12.900 what they all do with Shannon's subs.

00:15:15.180 Again, you can see just a huge crowd of reporters

00:15:17.760 talking to Shannon

00:15:19.160 because she's been outspoken in her criticism

00:15:21.240 about Aaron O'Toole.

00:15:22.700 But here we have Lesley Lewis,

00:15:23.700 who ran in a leadership race against Aaron O'Toole,

00:15:26.640 and she has just been elected as a new MP.

00:15:29.020 So why was it that Kian Beckstein

00:15:30.600 was the only reporter who wanted to talk to her?

00:15:32.920 It does seem pretty odd

00:15:34.360 that there weren't more mainstream media journalists

00:15:36.440 who were interested in her

00:15:37.900 because she's obviously another person

00:15:40.000 who could potentially be seen as waiting in the wings

00:15:42.400 as leader of this party

00:15:43.700 if Aaron O'Toole were to step down

00:15:45.700 or get removed from caucus.

00:15:47.240 So let's go to this clip of Kian Beckstein

00:15:48.920 asking Dr. Lesley Lewis

00:15:50.320 what she would do differently than Aaron O'Toole

00:15:53.080 if she had been leader.

00:15:54.280 I mean, federally, if you were leader,

00:15:56.360 would you have done anything different than Aaron?

00:15:59.680 Well, we're two different people,

00:16:02.020 so our approaches on certain issues are different,

00:16:05.340 and I stand with the leader and his approach,

00:16:08.840 and we have a lot to learn,

00:16:11.300 and we'll move forward from there.

00:16:12.760 But thank you for your time.

00:16:13.620 Thank you.

00:16:14.460 So while she does say that she supports the leader,

00:16:17.220 she also just makes that little tiny distinction 1.00

00:16:19.380 saying that we are two different people

00:16:21.080 and our approaches on certain issues are different.

00:16:24.340 So kind of, again, just alluding that

00:16:26.100 perhaps she would not have run as such a red Tory.

00:16:30.240 Everyone knows that she was much more of a populist,

00:16:32.420 social conservative in the leadership race,

00:16:34.680 so obviously she would have taken the party

00:16:36.880 in a different direction.

00:16:37.940 So next I want to go to this clip of Shannon Stubbs.

00:16:40.480 Shannon is a Alberta MP from rural Alberta,

00:16:42.960 and she has been outspoken in her criticism of Aaron O'Toole.

00:16:46.000 Like I said in the show a couple days ago,

00:16:47.620 there's three camps in the party.

00:16:49.140 Camp one are the people who just really support Aaron O'Toole

00:16:51.480 and want him on as leader.

00:16:52.920 Camp two are the people who are really mad,

00:16:54.640 really angry that he sold out on conservative principles

00:16:57.060 and want him to have the same kind of treatment

00:16:59.120 that Andrew Scheer was subject to.

00:17:00.660 And then the third camp is everyone else,

00:17:03.000 most of the caucus, who just want to not rock the boat.

00:17:07.220 They're not really sure whether they're going to support him

00:17:09.540 or go against him ultimately,

00:17:11.000 but they don't really have a strong position.

00:17:13.820 Shannon falls in that second category.

00:17:15.420 She's very outspoken,

00:17:16.560 and you can see how the media just flocked to her

00:17:18.460 because she was speaking to the media prior.

00:17:21.020 They knew that she had this dissenting opinion,

00:17:23.080 and the media love conflict.

00:17:24.460 They love sort of stirring the pot.

00:17:25.960 And so you can see how they just really want to amplify

00:17:28.260 what Shannon is saying, and so let's watch this clip.

00:17:32.180 Do you think that every MP that came in here today

00:17:34.600 has said how happy they are that they gained votes in St. John's

00:17:37.760 and they gained votes in Ontario,

00:17:38.820 but that came at the expense of 400,000 conservative voters

00:17:42.220 staying home in Alberta.

00:17:43.440 Do you attribute that more to the leader

00:17:44.980 or to the policy that the leader took?

00:17:46.520 So I'm a first-generation Albertan.

00:17:48.720 My mother was a Newfoundlander.

00:17:49.700 My father was a Nova Scotian,

00:17:51.020 and not a very uncommon story for Albertans.

00:17:55.700 I don't think conservative members should accept losing anywhere,

00:17:59.040 so I am certainly glad.

00:18:00.380 I did a lot of work out in those regions

00:18:01.760 over the time that I've been elected,

00:18:03.820 and I'm certainly glad that we have those new colleagues.

00:18:06.360 But yes, exactly to your point.

00:18:08.380 We lost seats in the GTA.

00:18:10.860 We lost seats in the Metro Vancouver area.

00:18:12.720 We lost seats in both of the cities in Alberta.

00:18:16.680 This shouldn't have to be an either-or proposition.

00:18:20.700 There's some conversation going on about the courage to change.

00:18:25.540 That's one of the things I'll be looking forward to hear

00:18:27.560 more from the leader about.

00:18:29.160 He said that on election night.

00:18:30.340 I don't quite know what that means,

00:18:32.320 and so I would say I'm kind of getting to what I heard you ask.

00:18:36.240 I would say we better hear about that today or real soon,

00:18:43.160 because if now what we're talking about is changes of our policies,

00:18:48.560 our values, our principles,

00:18:50.360 then for me that means it's even more important

00:18:52.840 for the members to be able to have a direct say.

00:18:55.700 And Shannon picked up on something really important

00:18:57.820 that Aaron Toole has been saying,

00:18:59.820 so good on Shannon for picking up on this

00:19:01.600 and questioning about it publicly,

00:19:02.780 because he kept saying that the party needs to have the courage to change.

00:19:06.640 We don't know what that means.

00:19:07.820 What do you mean the courage to change?

00:19:09.380 The courage to change our convictions?

00:19:10.980 The courage to change our ideas?

00:19:12.340 The courage to become more like liberals?

00:19:14.700 I don't think that that is a very compelling thing to say to conservatives.

00:19:18.160 I don't think that that's what conservatives want.

00:19:19.660 We don't want to change.

00:19:21.160 We want to have someone who reflects our principles

00:19:23.900 and our values being elected

00:19:26.160 and articulating the vision for Canada

00:19:29.920 that so many conservatives have.

00:19:31.980 So ultimately yesterday, most MPs,

00:19:34.480 most of the Conservative caucus supports Aaron O'Toole.

00:19:37.000 The few clips I showed here,

00:19:38.280 the little bit of dissent,

00:19:39.340 the little bit of contrarian thinking

00:19:40.680 is not the norm in the party.

00:19:42.600 These are the few people that stick out.

00:19:44.300 But really, most of caucus stands behind Aaron O'Toole,

00:19:47.740 want to give him another chance.

00:19:49.160 Here are a few of his supporters saying just that.

00:19:51.800 How do you feel about his leadership?

00:19:53.920 I know you support him, but how do you feel about him?

00:19:56.080 I also know that the people that we represent

00:19:58.520 want to see stability and unity,

00:20:00.860 particularly during a time of economic and health crisis in this country.

00:20:04.980 And I know that our caucus is ready to work together for Canadians.

00:20:08.720 How do you feel about the leadership right now, Mr. O'Toole's leadership?

00:20:12.000 I've been a friend and a fan of Aaron for a while.

00:20:14.960 I've been lucky.

00:20:15.780 I was in Ottawa most of the time during the pandemic

00:20:17.920 doing the fun job of questions for a coordinator.

00:20:20.380 So I was lucky enough to work with him.

00:20:21.940 And one thing I've said,

00:20:22.960 and I think the campaign showed as well,

00:20:24.960 a lot of Canadians didn't know who he was

00:20:26.580 at the beginning of the campaign.

00:20:28.200 And I think he proved himself very well during it.

00:20:30.080 So there you have it.

00:20:41.660 There really wasn't a lot of news out of yesterday.

00:20:43.460 I know that the Conservative MPs did vote in favour of the Reform Act,

00:20:46.920 which could potentially give them the power to oust Aaron O'Toole at a later date.

00:20:51.260 But this is just a procedural thing.

00:20:53.740 It really didn't have anything to do with Aaron O'Toole.

00:20:55.540 In fact, Aaron O'Toole voted in favour of it.

00:20:57.600 So it wasn't, some people in the media are trying to sort of twist it

00:21:00.140 to say that this means that they want to get rid of Aaron O'Toole.

00:21:03.280 No, it doesn't.

00:21:04.080 It's something that the MPs have been pushing for for a long time

00:21:06.840 to have more accountability and more democracy within the party.

00:21:10.620 So that was sort of the takeaway.

00:21:12.840 But I hope he does do some reflection,

00:21:14.480 perhaps not in front of the media, but behind closed doors.

00:21:16.600 I hope that he reflects and understands on the idea

00:21:18.740 that Canadians do not want another Liberal leader.

00:21:21.460 They already have a Liberal leader.

00:21:22.780 What they want is something different, a contrast.

00:21:24.760 They want someone who can stand up and defend conservative ideas and principles.

00:21:28.920 And perhaps Aaron O'Toole can try to be more like that in the future.

00:21:32.860 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

The Candice Malcolm Show - October 06, 2021

O’Toole blames Trudeau’s divisive campaign for CPC loss

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