Souris-Moose Mountain MP Robert Kitchen is delighted with the result of the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race.
Erin O’Toole, who represents the Ontario riding of Durham, was elected as the party’s new leader Sunday night, defeating former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay of Nova Scotia on the third ballot. Newcomer Leslyn Lewis of Ontario was third, and another Ontario MP, Derek Sloan, was fourth.
Kitchen has long been a supporter of O’Toole’s. He backed O’Toole’s leadership bid in 2017, when O’Toole finished third, and he supported O’Toole this time around.
“He brings a lot to the table. He’s an extremely knowledgeable, understanding and articulate man who can express the values of Canadians. He stands up for Canada. He’s done that in his career, and he’s portrayed that in the House of Commons,” said Kitchen.
The local MP believes O’Toole expresses values of family and handling adversity, and he also understands issues facing the west.
“I have spent a lot of time talking to him about things, in particular here in the riding on the carbon capture and storage, and the value of that information and knowledge and how we need to utilize that,” said Kitchen.
O’Toole also spent 10 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force, creating a bit of a common bond with Kitchen, whose father was a major general in the Canadian Armed Forces.
“What it has provided for Erin is an understanding of command structure, and how to do things and get things done. But Erin also not only brings that to the table, he also brings some compassionate understanding of things, and I think that bodes well in his leadership style.”
Kitchen was impressed with the campaign run by Lewis, who was less than 2,000 votes behind O’Toole and MacKay when Lewis was eliminated on the second ballot.
“She came out of nowhere. When you look at the outcome of voting last night, she did extremely well and she sowed some great things for her.”
Lewis has said she would be running for the Conservatives in the next federal election, and Kitchen looks forward to meeting her as a candidate.
The tabulating of votes was dogged by a technological issue Sunday night that delayed the announcement of the first ballot result by more than four hours. It made for a long night, but Kitchen doesn’t believe the problem will affect the perception of the party.
“We need technology, we need to advance and so sometimes things go wrong,” he said.
What he found ironic was that the network he was watching had continual breakdowns of their audio and video technology, but there was no mention of it.
Now that the Tories have a leader in place, Kitchen expects O’Toole will concentrate on getting his team in place. There will be a caucus meeting soon to discuss how they will move forward under O’Toole’s leadership.
The throne speech next month will be the first opportunity to try to bring down the government. The Bloc Quebecois has said previously that it will introduce a confidence vote in Parliament this fall.
“The prime minister prorogued government, and his argument was to have a speech from the throne, but reality was he could have prorogued Parliament two or three days before that speech from the throne. Why did he do it a month and a half earlier? Because he wanted to kill the WE scandal investigations that were happening in committee, because there was more and more information that was coming out.”
Trudeau needs to go, Kitchen said, and O’Toole needs to be given a shot at running the country.
