It's not easy leading a party of crazies. Consider the case of Erin O'Toole. Campbell Clark writes:
Erin O’Toole is stuck up in a tree, and he can’t get down.
His own party is at the bottom, waiting, and he doesn’t know what to do. His voters are waiting. His leadership-race supporters are there too and, well, that’s a bit awkward.
He doesn’t dare go anywhere people might ask questions about politics, or government, or issues of the day, because one of those questions might be about vaccines, and whether his MPs are vaccinated. So Mr. O’Toole doesn’t go out into the public eye much. He doesn’t say much.
The Conservatives have a problem with vaccine mandates:
The last time he did go out in person to face questions from reporters was on Oct. 27, to deliver the latest iteration of his policy on vaccination for Conservative MPs (those who don’t get vaccinated won’t show up at the Commons) but he took six questions, gave fewer answers, and strode out of the room.
And then there's Jason Kenney:
If you wanted to know what the Conservative Leader thought about Alberta’s referendum on equalization the week before that press conference, you were out of luck.
That’s quite an omission, since Alberta’s United Conservative Premier, Jason Kenney, is calling on Ottawa to change the system after a vote for equalization to be removed from the Constitution. Mr. O’Toole’s party includes 30 of Alberta’s 34 MPs in Parliament, so it is primarily Conservatives who speak for the province’s role in Confederation.
“None of them would take a position. Erin O’Toole wouldn’t take a position,” complained Jay Hill, interim leader of the Maverick Party, a fledgling Western separatist party that fielded 24 candidates in the September election. He argues the formula for equalization is unfair to Alberta.
It is worth noting that Mr. Hill, a former Conservative MP and cabinet minister also now argues it is politically impossible to speak for Alberta on equalization without alienating Quebec and other parts of the country. Maybe Mr. O’Toole also feels it is a no-win question. When The Globe and Mail asked for his position on the referendum, a spokesperson said in an e-mail that the Conservatives “support the rights of provinces to propose amendments to the Constitution that address inequities in Canada’s governance structures” but offered no view on the substance.
And on climate change, O'Toole also has nothing to say:
This week, while Mr. Trudeau was in Glasgow for COP26 climate talks, reiterating plans to cap and then reduce emissions from the oil and gas industry, Mr. O’Toole had nothing to say. (He did submit an op-ed to a newspaper about raising the flag so it can be lowered for Remembrance Day.) NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was in Glasgow, too. Mr. O’Toole did not hold any public events.
Mr. O'Toole really wanted to lead the Conservative Party of Canada. Apparently, he believes that the best way to do that is to keep his mouth shut.
Image: Facebook
4 comments:
After all the support O'Toole got from the socons, maybe a little biblical wisdom has sunk in: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." Proverbs 17:28
Cap
Brian Mulroney was interviewed by Evan Solomon about O'Toole's vaccine predicament. Mulroney said that O'Toole had to be just like him - a leader. When Brian was prime minister and a few MPs strayed why he just threw them out. They were gone. That whipped the rest into line. Problem solved.
Neither man mentioned the fact that Mulroney held sway over two massive majority governments. He wasn't floundering like O'Toole, rivals weren't gathering in the shadows, you couldn't hear the sound of axes on the grindstone.
It seems O'Toole isn't going anywhere unless Trudeau self-destructs which, while possible, doesn't appear imminent. Hard to see a workable survival strategy if the dissidents do get a leadership review.
Another Biblical passage comes to mind, Cap: "He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind."
O'Toole is herding cats, Mound.
Post a Comment