Tories will win next time: O'Toole

OTTAWA — The federal election battle may be over for Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, but the next fight is just beginning: defending his leadership against those in his party upset that the Liberals emerged with another minority government on Monday.

At a Tuesday news conference in Ottawa, O'Toole argued the Conservatives made important gains in the election, even though their seat count (currently at 119 to the Liberals' 158) is nearly identical to the last election.

“In about 30 ridings we came within 2,000 votes of the Liberals,” O'Toole said.

“We are building towards victory next time. I am disappointed that we've lost some members and I've already initiated a postelection review to examine what went right, what went wrong, and what we can do better to win in 18 months.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Conservatives had gained four seats in Atlantic Canada and one in Ontario, while losing four in B.C. and three in Alberta.

Those numbers could still change slightly this week as all the mail-in ballots are counted.

Despite the gains in Atlantic Canada, O'Toole lost ground in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), B.C.'s Lower Mainland, and in Edmonton — a troubling result for a leader who pitched himself as someone who could help the party win in suburban battlegrounds.

For the third straight election, the Liberals are on track to nearly sweep the populous GTA, a feat that makes it nearly impossible for the Conservatives to form government.

O'Toole argued that his election platform — which was substantially more centrist than the “True Blue” platform he ran on in the leadership race — helped the party make gains “in some parts of the country.”

“But we also didn't win the trust (of Canadians) to a level we needed in parts of the GTA, some parts of the country that we have to do better in,” he acknowledged.

A huge question for the party to sort through in the aftermath is how much of their vote share was lost to the People's Party of Canada, the hard-right populist party started by former Conservative leadership contender Maxime Bernier.

O'Toole argued the PPC benefited from voter backlash to pandemic measures, likely referring to vaccine mandates and lockdowns.

He said Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau had “divided the country and actually made health a wedge issue.”

“There were two people that used health in this pandemic for political gain, Mr. Trudeau and the PPC,” O'Toole said.

Asked whether the PPC drained enough votes from the Conservatives to cause them to lose close races, O'Toole again said that the PPC took advantage of voter frustration.