Conservative MPs decide today whether to keep Erin O’Toole as leader | CBC News

A vote by 50 per cent plus one of the 119 sitting Conservative MPs calling on O’Toole to step down would force him to make way for an interim leader immediately.

Sources tell CBC News that O’Toole’s caucus opponents believe they have the necessary votes, with at least 60 MPs agreeing that he has to go.

With the anti-O’Toole contingent confident he will go down today, talk has now shifted to who should step in as interim leader, sources said. If O’Toole is ousted, MPs will also vote on that interim leader later today.

O’Toole has vowed to take on his detractors, suggesting in a social media statement that a vote to remove him would put the party on the wrong path.

“I’m not going anywhere and I’m not turning back,” he said in a Facebook post. “Canada needs us to be united and serious.”

While a number of Conservative MPs said Tuesday they’d like to see O’Toole keep his job, others said publicly it’s time for new blood — including two MPs who backed him in the leadership race, Alberta MPs Garnett Genuis and Bob Benzen.

Late Tuesday, a group of 21 former Conservative MPs released a statement to caucus, urging them to remove O’Toole “for the good of the Conservative Party and the nation.”

“Erin O’Toole has not only failed to unite the party, his words and actions in recent days have created greater disunity,” the former MPs said.

This leadership review process is made possible by the Reform Act, legislation drafted by Conservative MP Michael Chong and adopted by Parliament in 2015. It was again endorsed by the Conservative caucus after the last federal election. The legislation empowers MPs to decide the fate of their leader but it does not specify how a party leader is to be elected, leaving that decision to the party.