Conservative Party national council suspends member who led bid to recall O’Toole

Council member Bert Chen started an online petition to collect signatures in hopes the council would hold a referendum before 2023 on O'Toole's party leadership.

A member of the Conservative Party of Canada’s national council has been suspended after spearheading an effort to trigger an early review of Erin O’Toole’s leadership.

Bert Chen sat as a representative from Ontario when he started an online petition to collect signatures in hopes the council would hold a referendum before 2023.

He launched it within 24-hours of the Conservative’s election defeat on Sept. 20, making it the first open question of O’Toole’s tenure.

Chen says members feel O’Toole has betrayed the party’s values when it comes to spending and a consumer carbon price on fuel.

Party president Rob Batherson says in a statement that the up to 60-day suspension follows complaints it received about Chen’s conduct, which will be investigated.

O’Toole tried putting a more moderate stamp on the party in hopes it would gain them more voters, but doing so has irked some Conservatives because he billed himself as the “true blue” candidate to win over the party base in last year’s leadership race.

In a Facebook post, Chen calls his suspension a way “to silence Conservative members that have lost confidence in the leadership of Erin O’Toole.”

He says many want him removed “for selling out their beliefs for a failed attempt at power.”