Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Denise Butters called for Erin O’Toole to be impeached as party leader – and said she lost faith in O’Toole after Tory suffered “losses important “during the last campaign.
In announcing his petition, Butters said under O’Toole the party had radically changed its mind on issues as important as payments for carbon, guns and the right to freedom of conscience, and lost formerly Conservative seats in urban and suburban Alberta ridings. British Columbia and the Greater Toronto Area.
Although O’Toole campaigned as a “zealous” Tory in the leadership race, he subsequently waged a federal election campaign “almost indistinguishable from the Trudeau Liberals.”
She said events warrant a leadership review well ahead of the planned vote at the 2023 Conservative convention. Under party rules, the first national convention following a failed federal election campaign undergoes an automatic leadership review. , but Butters wants that vote to take place within the next six months instead.
“Mr. O’Toole overturned the basics of our party’s policy in the same week, same day and even over the same line. Party members did not have the right to vote on this issue, but we must speak out about his leadership, “- said Butters in a statement to the media.
“We cannot allow our party to tear itself apart again. When we are divided, the Liberals win.”
According to the party’s charter, a referendum on any issue can be called if five percent of Conservative Party members sign a petition urging the party to poll members on the subject.
Butters, who backed former Federal Cabinet Secretary Peter McKay in the 2020 Tory leadership race, now has 90 days to collect enough signatures on his petition to force the party to hold a referendum. The O’Toole leadership referendum will be mandatory if one-third of all party members vote.
To promote the petition, Butters launched a website, membersvote.ca.
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