O’Toole tells MPs he’s open to changing policies if he survives caucus revolt: sources
Global News
Embattled Conservative leader says he’s ready for “reckoning” with caucus and will accept results of Wednesday’s leadership vote, after 35 MPs call for his ouster.
Embattled Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole told MPs Tuesday he was open to changing his party’s policies should he survive a caucus vote on his leadership, two sources told Global News.
O’Toole faces what he called a “reckoning” with the Conservative caucus Wednesday after 35 MPs signed a petition to force a vote on his leadership over the weekend.
Under rules adopted by Conservative MPs after September’s election loss, a simple majority of caucus can vote to immediately install an interim leader and begin the party’s third leadership contest in six years.
Three sources told Global News that O’Toole and his close allies reached out to MPs Tuesday to try and win their support. Two of those sources said O’Toole opened the door to changing some policies he campaigned on just six months ago — if he survives Wednesday’s vote.
Global News granted the sources anonymity in order to discuss internal party matters.
“It’s too late for that,” said one Conservative caucus source.
“You can have the best policies, you can have the best ideas, you can finally come up with something people agree with. But the message doesn’t matter if you don’t trust the messenger.”
Since September’s disappointing election results — which saw the Conservatives lose ground in crucial regions of the country, compared to 2019’s election loss — O’Toole has had to contend with increasingly vocal frustration from within his own caucus.