Erin O'Toole says he has enough Conservative caucus support to stay on as leader

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said today he believes he has enough support from his party'sMPs to stay on as leader if he's forced to go through a caucus leadership review.

Twoweeks after losing the election to the incumbent Liberals, Conservative MPsgathered inOttawa today for a caucus meeting to discuss the disappointing result and vote on a series of measures that could give MPs the power to fireO'Toole and launchanother leadership race to replace him.

While there has been grumbling in Conservative circles overO'Toole's performance during the campaign at least one caucus member told CBC News that they want to see him resign the leader said today he thinks he has enough support to hang on and lead the party through another election.

"Yes I do," O'Toole said when asked if he has the backing of most MPs.

"I've spoken to most of the caucus. We're all disappointed no one more so than me but we need to make sure we build on the gains we have made, learn from where we fell short. That's what any team, any family does when you have a disappointment, you learn from it and you come together and that's what this meeting will do today."

'We have to be ready to run again'

O'Toole said his focus will be on holding Trudeau to account and preparing the party for another election, which could come at any time in a minority Parliament. "We have to be ready to run again," he said.

"I think Mr. Trudeau has already let Canadians down again in his first 10 days," O'Toole said, referring to Trudeau's beach vacation inTofino, B.C. on theNational Day for Truth and Reconciliation. "He has more lessons to learn than we do."

Following the terms ofthe Reform Act legislation drafted by Conservative MP Michael Chong and adopted by Parliament in 2015 aseries of votes were held at the start of today'scaucus meeting. The votes are designed to give MPs and, to a lesser degree, senatorsmore decision-making powerin a parliamentary system that has become increasingly centralized around party leaders and their teams.

WATCH| Erin O'Toole optimistic about his political future:

Erin OToole confident he will stay on as federal Conservative leader

3 years ago

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Erin O'Toole will stay on as Conservative Party leader, for now. Conservative MPs gathered today for a caucus meeting and, for the most part, expressed support for O'Toole. But his future is uncertain; caucus did adopt a measure that would allow them to oust O'Toole if enough MPs vote in favour. And there are grumblings among some who believe the party has strayed too far from its conservative principles.

Conservative MPs votedto give themselves the power to elect a caucus chair the Toriespicked for the jobScott Reid, a long-time MP from eastern Ontario andexpel an MP, if necessary.

They also agreed to adopt the Reform Act's leadership review principlebut a vote on O'Toole's future isn'texpected today.

Under the rule adopted by MPs, at least 20 per cent of caucus members must formally request a leadership review. If enough agree, a secret ballot vote is then held to decide the fate of the leader.

If a simple majority of members vote against O'Toole in such a process, an interim leader is appointedand the party launchesa search for O'Toole's permanent successor.

O'Tooledescribed the mechanism as part of a "fair and transparent process" required of any properly functioning party.

"This is not about a sword of Damocles hanging over my head," he told reporters in Ottawa."We are united as a team."

O'Toole also announced a separate party review that will examine "every element" of the Tories' 2021 campaign, with the goal of helping the party win more voteswhenever the next federal election occurs.

The campaignreviewwill be led by former MP James Cumming. Another personnot yetnamedwill be tasked withreviewing the Conservatives' Quebec campaign.

ConservativeMPShannon Stubbs, who represents the rural Alberta riding of Lakeland, said O'Toole will face tough questions about the party's drift to the politicalcentrein the election.

During the campaign, O'Toole embraced a big-spending platformand promised to push off a return to balance budgets for ten years. He also initially promised to repeal a Liberal ban on assault-style firearms only to backtrack during the campaign.

Stubbs said that shift in O'Toole's positionhurt her in her local race;she said she saw 15 per cent fewer votes cast in her name than she did in2019.

"I believe there needs to be an accounting on how it is that we are going to maintain Conservative voters, maintain confidence among Conservative voters and supporters," she said.

She said O'Toole's embrace of a more moderate form of conservatism which was sold as a way to win over voters in urban areas of central Canada failed to pay dividends.

"The reality is that today, after the 2021 election, Conservatives are more rural, more homogeneous than we've ever been before. And we lost great, strong, necessary colleagues in big cities in every part of this country," she said.

Most of the MPs who stopped to speak to reporters ahead of the caucus meeting said they supportO'Toole staying on as leader, even if they supported some of the Reform Act policies in principle.

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who ran for the party's leadership last year, said O'Toole "showed himself to be a really impressive leader. He did well in the debates, the platform was great. He did lead the team well and no one is perfect."

But she addedthere were "a few problematic points in that campaign" that need to be addressed before the next election. She said some Conservative supporters were disappointed by the "flip-flop on the carbon tax" and O'Toole's shifting position on firearms during the campaign.

Conservative MP Karen Vecchio, who fended off a People's Party challenger in her southwestern Ontario riding, said she is "100 per cent, absolutely" behind O'Toole.

"I think the story will be gone by 12 o'clock," she said of today's caucusmeeting.

Chong said he "supports Erin staying on as leader" because the party performed better in Ontario and Quebec than in past elections, picked up a seat in Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time in 10 years and won back traditionally Tory ridings in the Maritimes.

"The topline results look very similar to the last election. But when you look beneath the hood, so to speak, the results are quite different. Was it enough? Clearly not," Chong said.

"I think he should stay on because I think he's set us on the right track. Clearly we've got some work to do but if we stay on this track with changes, clearly mistakes were made I think that sets us up well for the next election."

Conservative B.C. MP Dan Albas said the party is well-positioned to win in the next election. "Everyone I've been speaking to so far has been saying the same thing the Liberals, the trend is not their friend," he said. "We've grown our vote share in parts of the country we haven't won in a long time."

"I fully support Mr. O'Toole," said Conservative Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner. "We're all looking forward to getting back to work."

If he can avoida caucus revolt in the meantime, O'Toolefaces another formal challenge to his position in 2023.

Under the party's constitution, there is an automatic leadership review at the first national Conservative convention "following a federal general election when the party does not form the government and the leader has not indicated, prior to the commencement of the national convention, an irrevocable intention to resign."

So if O'Toole does not resign before the planned 2023 convention, delegates will be asked to vote on whether they want to launch a "new leadership selection process" to replace him. The scars from this campaign may have faded by the time members get a say.