In these last days of the Conservative leadership race, the second in three years, I have been asked several times who I plan on voting for and in what order. Without getting into the obvious ironies of why a party totally opposed to electoral reform has the most complicated balloting system in the Western Hemisphere, my choices will be the following (provided the little piece of paper arrives this time): Derek Sloan and Erin O’Toole, in first and second respectively.
Before discussing these candidates, let’s get the elephant out of the room – no, I won’t be marking Peter MacKay’s name anywhere, unless there’s a questionnaire in the package asking who ought to be drummed out of the party next. Not only have his baffling statements on issues such as conscious rights made him a liability, but Slippery Pete, as he’s often called in his home province, offers zero contrast to the current prime minister occupying a cottage at Rideau Hall.
Indeed, the resemblance is eerie: in a side by side shot on some future political program with two or three bullet points below, the family photos will display two ethnically white straight males with gorgeous wives and three non-descript children, along with old money names that infer an established political clout. Except for the staged addresses our PM is giving during this pandemic, he’s had trouble connecting with average people - how will a Tory version fair better?
No, MacKay served his purpose when he helped unite the right in Canada - we wish him well as a future CBC talking head, where all mediocre political personalities are laid to rest.
This leads us back to Messrs. Sloan and O’Toole. Taking the former first, whatever Sloan has for or against him, he has earned top priority on the ballot by being a man who speaks his mind in a country where the truth is no longer a defence. While his caucus colleagues tried to expel him for this trait, clearly the Almighty saved him by just one vote, so Sloan could continue to proclaim that our elected officials, as well as the media, are useful idiots in a Potemkin village.
In the last leadership contest, Brad Trost served as this vehicle, placing fourth, just after O’Toole. For his heretical beliefs in God, guns, and human rights for the unborn, Trost was pushed out by a series of well-coordinated intrigues and betrayals by those party insiders at the top who could just as easily vote red and work at Liberal HQ. But Trost proved that faith, family, firearms, farms, and a sprinkling of fiscal conservatism still has adherents in the membership.
Sloan now carries that flag unabashedly and, having learned from Trost’s missteps that left him vulnerable, has girded himself to reach the home stretch. Every vote for Sloan is really a message to the party apparatchiks that their lack of principles are not welcome here and that we will eventually have them accept what appeals to the base, or be purged, hopefully cast into the outer darkness with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, unable to find employment in this land.
Of course, who will actually win the race is O’Toole.
It is only fair, as he placed third last time and the two ahead of him have self-imploded. He could have claimed the Tory throne as his by right, but instead he hit the campaign trail again for the second time in 36 months, finetuning his message and discussing issues with Canadians between all three coasts, in person or digitally after COVID-19 turned our world upside down. This exhibits that old virtue - integrity.
O’Toole is a veteran, which means you’ve already met him at a Legion or mess hall, a local volunteer firefighter BBQ, or an excursion with your SAR crew. And his riding is Durham, which bears a lot more resemblance to port, mine, or mill towns than Papineau does. Ultimately, that is how I believe O’Toole will take the leadership of my party and eventually our country - we’ve been waiting for a relatable character for decades. Finally, a neighbourly dad is running for office.
