It seems that conservative leader Erin O’Toole is not just an unknown to Canadian taxpayers. His own caucus in Ottawa is just as much in the dark as are the voters. The conservative MPs are puzzled as to where he intends to lead their party.
Some of the more reliable reporters in Ottawa are starting to ask questions. And if the conservative party is going to start running pre-election ads on television saying he is ‘Just Erin,’ they might just dig a deeper hole than they are already in.
The conservative caucus is already in a pandemic slump. And all they are getting, after six months of their new leader, is confused messages. It seems that O’Toole used the extreme right wing of the right-wing party to win the leadership. Since then, he has tried to sell himself as more of a ‘middle of the road’ kind of guy.
A middle-of-the-road kind of guy is someone without a clue where he is headed.
The worst surprise the caucus had to absorb was the demotion of Pierre Poilievre from finance critic. Pierre had proved himself a pit bull in the position. His replacement is more the grandfatherly type. What that is communicating to voters remains to be seen.
But ‘Just Erin’ might reveal all at the upcoming virtual convention of the party on policy. This is scheduled for March and the party’s extremists on the right have been quietly snapping up the invites. Not knowing how the event is to work, or not work, as the case might be, there is no telling what will happen when everybody virtually meets.
When conservative MPs have a chance to get together in Ottawa, there seems to be a lot of quiet conversations about what they can do to save their seats in parliament. Mind you that does not include the boys and girls from Alberta and Saskatchewan who are practically guaranteed to return.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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