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Prince George MPs believe Erin O’Toole can unite Conservatives as newly-elected leader

Todd Doherty, Bob Zimmer initially showed support for Peter MacKay
Kyle Balzer
Kyle Balzer

Erin O’Toole was elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in the early hours of Monday morning (Aug. 24) eastern time.

Though they didn’t originally side with the Ontario Tory, local Conservatives Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer are expressing their support moving forward with the official opposition.

Both northern B.C. MPs, representing Cariboo-Prince George and Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies respectively, sided with Peter MacKay in the leadership race ahead of the ballot, which saw an estimated 175,000 ballots cast by mail across the country.

MacKay won the first round of voting by under 1,000 points, but then O’Toole won both the second and third rounds; the winning candidate needed 16,901 to claim the title.

Doherty says he’s known O’Toole and worked alongside him in the House of Commons since his first term in 2015.

“I am confident that he will unite our caucus, our movement and our country behind a positive Conservative message,” said Doherty in a statement, “and will offer Canadians a clear alternative to Justin Trudeau’s scandal plagued government.”

Zimmer says he also looks forward to working with O’Toole.

“It was a hard fought, decisive victory and through his leadership we will continue to work hard, united as a party and as a caucus, to stand up for Canadians,” he said in his own statement.

“As Erin said in his speech: ‘The world still needs more Canada, it just needs less Justin Trudeau’. I look forward to taking on Justin Trudeau and the Liberals with him as our leader.”

Much of the leadership race itself was shaped by the pandemic as the vote was supposed to take place in June, but was pushed back to August.

"To the millions of Canadians that are still up, that I'm meeting tonight for the first time: Good morning. I'm Erin O'Toole, you're going to be seeing and hearing a lot from me in the coming weeks and months," O'Toole said in his victory speech.

"But I want you to know from the start that I am here to fight for you and your family."

Leslyn Lewis, the only female finalist, and Derek Sloan were the other candidates in the running for Tory leader, but were dropped out after the first two rounds.

- with files from The Canadian Press