Erin O'Toole does not want the residents of Canada's prisons to be the first Canadians vaccinated. It's part of the old Stephen Harper playbook. Robin Sears writes:
Canadian conservatives since the Reform Party-era in the ‘80s have often skated too close to the line on Islamophobia, guns, refugees and Indigenous rights.
O’Toole needs to put a clear red line on the other side of those dangerous dog whistles. Instead he has renewed doubts.
Stephen Harper's Party were Northern Republicans -- and they haven't changed:
Conservatives are admittedly masters at this American style of incendiary rhetoric, but it has trapped them with the same base — aging, rural and Western — for nearly two decades now. It perhaps signals some uneasiness in O’Toole’s caucus and activist base about giving up attack politics that he would do something as borderline racist as saying that no prisoners — or presumably therefore no prison employees — should receive a vaccination until every “other” Canadian has.
Is that really the message O’Toole has for Canadians about a more caring, less vitriolic Canadian conservatism? With a single foolish statement, he has gifted the Liberals and the NDP with a powerful weapon against him.
This week he doubled down, with someone in his camp authorizing an email conversation on his behalf with the bilious Ezra Levant and Rebel Media — the same collection of angry adolescents that helped bring down his predecessor. And the capper: a Tory fundraising page on the party’s website actually carried the headline, “Justin Trudeau is rigging the next election in his favour.” The page came down after the attack on Congress.
It would hard to think of a less appropriate time to be tempted to revive somewhat ominous slogans like “Take Back Canada” — it begs the question from whom and for whom? It should be retired after having been erased from everything with the party name on it. O’Toole did put out a statement last week saying most of the right things about white nationalism and the use of violent political rhetoric. But given the party’s record over the past two decades, that will not be good enough.
The Harper Party has changed its leader. But the party itself hasn't changed.
Image: The Toronto Star
