Erin O’Toole ousted as Conservative leader after caucus revolt – National | Globalnews.ca

Erin O’Toole is no longer the leader of the Conservative party.

In a secret-ballot vote Wednesday morning, Conservative MPs chose to oust their leader after just 17 months and one failed election at the helm.

It was not immediately clear how many MPs voted against O’Toole, but at least a simple majority of the party’s MPs opted to launch the party’s third leadership contest in six years.

The vote was forced by 35 MPs unhappy with O’Toole’s leadership after last year’s disappointing election results.

But the root of the anger goes back much further. O’Toole won the leadership claiming to be a “True Blue” conservative — a contrast with Peter MacKay, who despite holding senior cabinet roles in Stephen Harper’s government, was labelled by the O’Toole campaign as a red Tory.

Yet once the leadership was secured, O’Toole took the party in a much different direction. After pledging to scrap the Liberals’ carbon levy, O’Toole promised a version of his own — which he steadfastly denied was a “tax,” despite it applying a surcharge on purchases like gas.

O’Toole’s election platform promised roughly $100 billion in new spending over 10 years — equivalent to what the Liberal government was pledging, which rankled fiscal hawks within the movement.

Conservative MPs who went along with O’Toole’s perceived pivot to the political centre became even more frustrated after the approach failed.

O’Toole made few changes to his close-knit group of advisors after the election, and caucus meetings grew more fractious — including a difficult meeting in late December.

An election post-mortem, conducted by former MP James Cumming, did little to quell the caucus discontent.

More to come.