With Erin O’Toole ousted as Conservative Party of Canada leader earlier this week, Greater Sudbury’s two Conservative candidates said they’re disappointed to see him gone.
“I think that we were well-served by continuing with our current leadership,” last year’s Nickel Belt Conservative candidate Charles Humphrey said.
O’Toole, he added, was always “willing to walk that very difficult path of principled compromise.”
“There’s a strong temptation these days given the amped-up volume of our politics and the increasing divisiveness, there’s a very natural emotional temptation to respond to what you see as the threat of the other polarity that opposes you.”
Similarly disappointed, last year’s Conservative candidate for Sudbury, Ian Symington, said that O’Toole maintained a firm grasp of the realities of life Canadians face.
“He always tried to stay positive … and stay out of the mud and not make nasty comments.”
That said, Conservative MPs voting O’Toole out as leader didn’t come as too great a shock.
There were divisions in the party during last year’s election season, Symington said, pointing to O’Toole’s flip-flop on a platform promise to repeal an “assault-style” firearms ban introduced the previous year as a point of contention for some.
“Canada’s a big country, it’s very hard to represent rural Canadian views when you’re sitting in the middle of the 905 belt and they’ve got completely different ideas,” Symington said.
With O’Toole out, Greater Sudbury’s Conservative candidates both said they’re looking forward to seeing who comes out of the woodwork to fill his vacancy.
Manitoba MP Candice Bergen will be filling in on an interim basis,
“She seems not afraid to take on the issues,” Symington said, adding that Bergen has proven herself to be well spoken and respectful of those around her – two ideal qualities in a leader.
Humphrey admitted that he is less familiar with Bergen, but has confidence that she was chosen as a longstanding Conservative who will lend a “steady hand and as a steward” to help the party through this transition period.
As for a permanent leader, Humphrey said there are many viable options to sort through in the coming months.
Pierre Poilievre, he said, has a strong media following and proved himself a phenomenal cross-examiner during the WE hearings, during which he proved his intellectual strengths.
Leslyn Lewis and Melissa Lantsman are also names Humphrey has been watching – Lantsman in particular.
Part of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s staff, Lantsman, 37, was elected to the Ontario riding of Thornhill in last year’s election.
“I immediately started following her when I started running and tried to emulate her,” Humphrey said. “She’s a titan compared to myself.”
Symington said he will also be watching the leadership race with a close eye. Although Poilievre has grabbed the most headlines, he said, “He’ll need to soften up a little bit.”
Poilievre has a degree of succinctness and persistence that can prove both a blessing and a curse, he said, with some people seeing it as coming across as too aggressive.
The next Conservative leader needs to both maintain the Conservatives’ core values of fiscal responsibility, family values and hard work, and promote the same kind of inclusivity as O’Toole strived to achieve, Symington added.
Although the Sudbury riding has 9,000 Conservative votes they can pretty much count on regardless of party leader or candidate, he said the ceiling is much higher than what they’ve been achieving.
“It does depend on the leader, it does depend on the local candidate, the issues of the day and how they resonate with people in Sudbury.”
These are difficult times, Humphrey said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought political decisions directly into the homes of Canadians.
Humphrey attended an anti-lockdown rally outside of Bell Park last month, during which he carried a sign reading, “Kids Need School!”
“I was really upset because I want my children to be in school,” he said. “People want their businesses to be open, they want to travel, people who chose not to be vaccinated want to be able to work and not feel stigmatized within society.”
More people are becoming politically engaged, he said, and he has been actively striving to bring more young people into the fold to build upon the gains Conservatives made locally in last year’s election.
Symington said that he will also be striving to make deeper community inroads between now and the next federal election.
“I need to reach more people who have a handle on all the things the community needs,” he said, adding that this will help him both localize national party points and advocate for local points nationally.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
