Conservative post-election report says O'Toole was 'over-managed' during the campaign

A post-election report on the Conservative Party's 2021 campaign performance found leader Erin O'Toole had a strong start to the 36-day electoral contest but faltered at the finish because he was "over-managed" and "over-coached" by senior staff.

The report, commissioned by the party brassand compiled by former Alberta MP James Cumming, concludedO'Toole didn't connect well enough with voters because he "wasn't himself" at key moments in the campaign.

"The team should have let him be him rather than over-coaching," said a Conservative source who has been briefed on the report's findings.

O'Toole rarely ventured away from carefully crafted talking points during the campaign. Some pundits described his performance as stiff.

O'Toole acknowledged during a Thursday evening news conference that his performance appeared too "scripted" during the closing days of the election campaign.

He also said the Conservatives failed to craft policy onsome issues of importance to Canadians, though he did not offer specifics.

"All of these decisions are my responsibility," he said.

WATCH| O'Toole reflects on his performance:

'There's a lot I have to learn,' O'Toole says following post-election report

3 years ago

Duration 1:44

Opposition Leader Erin O'Toole says his election studio sessions cut him off from meeting more Canadians and that he was told that during the last week of the campaign he sounded "scripted."

During the campaign, O'Toole struggled to deliver direct answers to questions about his shifting positionson "assault-style" firearms and "conscience rights" for medical professionals. Thatprompted criticism frompartymembers like Sen. Denise Batters, who hasbranded O'Toole a flip-flopper.

The Cumming report concluded that O'Toole neededto be more "authentic" andget out on the roadto meet with Canadians so they can get to know him better.

Cumming briefed MPs and senators on his findings in a closed-door meeting of theConservative caucus Thursday. Cumming, who supported Peter MacKay in the last leadership campaign, spent four months speaking to caucus members, candidates, staff, grassroots volunteers and electoral districting association (EDA) presidents as he compiled thepost-mortem report.

O'Toolestarted the campaign strong but faltered in the remaining days. The Cumming report attributesO'Toole's loss ofmomentumin partto his campaign schedule.

For two or three days out of the week and sometimes more O'Toole campaigned virtually from a makeshift broadcast studio inside a downtown Ottawa hotel. His only interactions with would-be voters and Conservative supporters were through telephone town halls.

"The leader was different in the studio than out. He needed to be out with the people more," the source said.

A Conservative source who attended the caucus meetingsaid Cumming's presentation spent little time on O'Toole's ownfailings.

"The section on the leader was about two minutes and they really didn't lay anything at the leader's feet," the source said.

AnotherConservative caucus member who was on hand for the presentation and spoke toCBCNews on the condition of anonymity said the Cumming report lacked "integrity" because it didn't adequately deal withwhat the source described as the "elephant in the room" O'Toole's shifting positions on major issues before and during the campaign, such ascarbon pricing, firearms and conscience rights.

'He's a flip-flopper'

"We can do different things on practices and procedures and more cultural outreach and less time in the studio and all that. But the report was silent on O'Toole himself. There was no mention of the personal brand that's now attached to him that's he a flip-flopper," the source said.

"There was no review of the biggest liability that we had in the campaign, which was Erin's integrity. The criticisms of him were that he was over-coached that's not a criticism of him, it's a criticism of his team. It's sort of like saying, 'What's your greatest fault? ... Oh, I'm too honest.'"

WATCH| Cumming discusses his report:

James Cumming says comprehensive internal report interviewed well over 400 participants

3 years ago

Duration 10:21

Former Conservative MP James Cumming joins Power & Politics to discuss his internal report on reviewing the Conservative Party's election campaign.

The source said O'Toole didn't respondwell to thecriticism he faced during the question-and-answer session that followed Cumming's presentation.

"Erin just dismissed it. He often just counter-attacked the questioner or said, 'Yes, this is the right place to raise these questions,' and then wouldn't answer them. That was the theme he didn't address them."

"When you ask a question of the leader in caucus, you expect an answer and people weren't getting them and there was a lot of conflict," the source said, adding that there's a "clear feeling" that O'Toole "came out of this two-day retreat much weaker than when he went in."

A Conservative caucus member friendly to O'Toole said the leader's shifting positions were "absolutely acknowledged" during the election debrief.

"We talked about how it was an issue for candidates and how it was tough to explain at the doors," said the source, who spoke on a not-for-attribution basis so they could speak freely about internal party dynamics.

Flip-flopping was "definitely raised," the source said. "We talked about how it was a challenge for the leader and the perception of our leader. It was identified in more than one spot in the report."

This source said the "overwhelming majority" of the caucus supports O'Toole and those MPs are growing "increasinglyimpatient witha small number of people who are hanging on to frustrations."

Frustration over polls, media leaks

During Thursday's meeting, some caucus memberspointed to a recent Angus Reid poll that suggests O'Toole's numbers are under water five months after the campaign. Only 26 per cent of the 5,002 people surveyed this month saidthey have a favourable view of the leader.

That same poll found 51 per cent of those surveyed had a positive view ofNDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, while42 per cent said they approved ofPrime Minister Justin Trudeau. A source said caucus members are "not happy" that O'Toole has struggled to gain in popularity.

Other caucus members expressed frustration with the fact thatelementsof Cumming's report were leaked to the media. Even before the former MP finished his presentation to caucus, Global News published a story on some of the findings.

"At the beginning of caucus, the leadership, the whip, Cumming, they all warned us not to leak this. We were told anyone found leaking would be in big trouble. Then, Alex Boutilier comes out with an article while Cumming is still speaking," the source said, referring to the Global reporter.

"The caucus went nuts. They were furious and asked the leader why it leaked out and if it was to put him in a good light. The leader denied it."

Diversity problem

The Cumming report also zeroed in on the party's poor performance with so-called "ethnic voters." The party stumbled in the 2021 campaign in must-win areas like the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver and its suburbs two ethnically and racially diverse regionsthat have skewed Liberal in the last two election cycles.

The party's current contingent of MPs is virtually all white. A number of diverse Conservative candidates lost their seats to a Liberal Party that performed well among East Asian and South Asian voters in cities like Brampton, Ont. and Richmond, B.C.

"This goes way back to 2015, it goes back to the niqab ban and the barbaric cultural practices tip line,"the source said, referring to controversial Conservative policy proposals during the 2015 election campaign.

"It did damage to the brand that we have not been able to resolve. We've never had the opportunity to rebuild the brand in cultural communities,"

The report saysthe partyshould invest more resources in ethnic outreach and engaging withcommunities "in the language of their choice." The report also suggested the party could make memberships free to attract more supporters.

"We've been spinning our wheels since 2015," the source said.

Jenni Byrne, the party's national campaign manager duringthe 2015 federal election, said "blaming the 2015 campaign makes no sense" and doesn'texplain why the party faltered among some groups.

"We won the seats that Erin lost in 2015 and in 2019," Byrne told CBC News. "How could two elections and two leaders have cost him support?"

Under O'Toole, the party dropped five MPs in diverse areas of the country Kenny Chiu, Nelly Shin and Alice Wong from Vancouver-area ridings, Bob Saroya from the riding of Markham-Unionville (a suburb of Toronto) and Calgary's Jag Sahota. All of theseseats had been in the Conservative win column in 2019.

"And also, Erin was the caucus representativeon the 2015 platform," Byrne said, citing the document that included proposals for a "niqab ban" at citizenship ceremonies and a hotline to report what the party called "barbaric cultural practices," such as sexual slavery or "honour" killings.