To unseat Trudeau, Conservative leader seeks middle ground

The man who might oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power advertised himself a year ago as a “true-blue conservative” who would “take back Canada” when he became his party’s leader

TORONTO -- The man who could oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power advertised himself a year ago as a “true-blue conservative.” He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to “take back Canada” - and almost immediately started working to modernize the party by pushing it toward the political center.

Erin O'Toole, a military veteran and a member of Parliament for nine years, has only quickened his pace while campaigning for Canada's snap federal election. Despite criticism that the former lawyer would say and do anything to get elected, polls show O’Toole’s Conservatives could defeat Trudeau’s Liberal Party on Monday.

O'Toole's strategy, which has included disavowing positions held dear by his party's base on issues such as climate change, guns and balanced budgets, is designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbor. Whether moderate Canadians believe O’Toole is the progressive conservative he claims to be has become a central question of the election campaign.

“O’Toole tells Conservative friends what he’s really going to do and pretending to Canadians something completely different," Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Montreal on Thursday. "Whether it’s been on guns, on the environment or whether its been on vaccines, Mr. O’Toole has been misleading Canadians, not leading.”