Erin O'Toole

After Scheer resigned as leader in late 2019, O'Toole ran a successful leadership campaign, defeating former cabinet minister Peter MacKay in the 2020 leadership election. After he assumed the leadership, O'Toole marketed his party to working-class Canadians. O'Toole lost the 2021 federal election while receiving a plurality of the popular vote, and also won re-election in his home riding of Durham. O'Toole stated he would stay on as party leader, but on February 2, 2022, he was ousted after losing a leadership review from sitting Conservative Party MPs.

On January 31, 2022, Conservative Calgary Heritage MP Bob Benzen submitted a letter with signatures from 35 Conservative MPs calling for a leadership review on O'Toole's leadership to the Conservative caucus chair, Scott Reid. In the letter, Benzen criticized O'Toole's reversal on repealing Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax and assault weapons ban.

On February 2, 2022, O'Toole was ousted as leader in a vote by Conservative MPs according to the terms of the Reform Act. By secret ballot, O'Toole was removed as leader by a margin of 73 votes to 45. The vote forced his removal, which took effect immediately.

In 2022, O'Toole expressed his belief that Chinese interference had played a role in the Conservative Party's loss during the 2021 Canadian federal election in an interview with Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith on Smith's UnCommons podcast. O'Toole opined that interference by Chinese Communist Party linked outfits could have cost the Conservatives up to "eight or nine seats."

O'Toole has spoken out against the Chinese government multiple times, singling it out as a bad actor on the international stage. He says there is a "growing influence of Chinese agents" in Canada meant to push Chinese propaganda and to intimidate Canadians. He supports passing a law similar to the Australian foreign interference law. He has proposed tightening up foreign investment groups to deter state-owned companies from non-free countries from buying Canadian resources and companies unless there is a compelling reason to approve. He supports a tougher stance on China and imposing sanctions on Chinese Communist Party officials involved with human rights violations using provisions of the Sergei Magnitsky Law. He opposes China's treatment of Uyghurs, saying that the 2022 Winter Olympics should be relocated from Beijing owing to concerns that the Chinese government is committing genocide against Uyghurs. He has come out in support of the Trump administration's hard-line approach to China.

Following the start of the 2021 election campaign, O'Toole released a platform with the slogans "Secure the Future" in English and "Agir Pour L'Avenir" (English translation: Act for the Future) in French. The opening paragraphs of the 160-page document include a statement that "It's time for Conservatives to take inequality seriously" The Conservatives described their platform as focusing on the economy, jobs, and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the final days of the campaign, he attempted to convince People's Party voters that a vote for it would split the vote and allow a Trudeau victory. O'Toole lost the election to Trudeau, who won another minority government, though he won his riding of Durham and a plurality of the popular vote. O'Toole stated on election night that he would stay on as leader.

O'Toole has stated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government should only spend what is necessary to help Canadians and balance the budget gradually over the next decade. O'Toole is against a national childcare program, saying that he prefers giving families more childcare options rather than one federal one. In his 2021 platform, he proposed to replace the current child care funding with tax credits for parents. He also opposes a national pharmacare program, saying that the government should not replace billions already spent by insurance companies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Toole released a post-pandemic recovery plan. He promised to launch a royal commission on the issue within 100 days of taking office and said the "big government" strategy failed Canadians. He has proposed converting the existing child care expense deduction to a refundable tax credit. He supported extending Employment Insurance for workers after the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) ran out in summer 2021. O'Toole believes the CERB should have been used more effectively by the government and focused on sectors hit hardest by the pandemic. He proposes expanding the emergency loan program for businesses and temporarily amend bankruptcy laws to make company restructuring easier.

O'Toole's climate plan proposes to continue taxing industry and does plan to raise the tax on industry as much as Trudeau intends to. He has said climate change is a global problem which requires a global solution. O'Toole has committed to meeting Canada's Paris Agreement targets and has said he will partner with the provinces to do so. He supports net-zero emissions legislation as long as he considers it to "support Canadian industry" and has stated that he would like to partner with and pressure organizations to lower their emissions, including helping oil companies become carbon neutral. During his 2021 election campaign, O'Toole stated he would revert back to earlier emissions targets, stating Trudeau has no plan to bring emissions down to more recent targets.

On March 20, 2021, O'Toole attempted to convince members to support a more serious agenda aimed at curbing climate change, saying that he did not want his candidates to be labelled as climate change deniers. Despite this, the party's base rejected a motion adding "we recognize that climate change is real. The Conservative Party is willing to act", with 54% of delegates voting against it.

O'Toole announced that he would seek the leadership of the Conservative Party in late January 2020. During his campaign, he framed himself as a "true blue" conservative, implying that rivals like Peter MacKay were less conservative. It helped that Pierre Poilievre, who was expected to get support from the right of the party, decided not to run. O'Toole's tone was angrier this time than during his first leadership run, which he stated was due to his increasing worry about the country after five years under a Trudeau government. He believed that his status as an MP would allow him to hold Trudeau accountable as soon as he became leader. During the campaign, O'Toole alleged that MacKay's campaign obtained stolen internal campaign data from him. A former intern at Calgary Centre MP Greg McLean's office later admitted to obtaining the data.

Shortly after becoming leader, O'Toole said that triggering a fall election was not his priority and he preferred to focus instead on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and finding jobs for the unemployed. He reaffirmed his position in December 2020, stating that an election should not take place until after the pandemic had ended. Still, he said the Conservative Party was prepared for another election if one was called. On September 2, 2020, he announced Candice Bergen would serve as his deputy. O'Toole revealed his Shadow Cabinet the following week, with most roles changing from the previous Scheer-led one.

O'Toole supports reviewing the mandate for the CBC's English digital and television operations, possibly converting it into a PBS-style public interest model to ensure it does not compete with the private sector. He argues the current competition with the private sector hurts other media companies, which is why he believes the $600-million print media bailout package would no longer be needed. He previously supported defunding these, being a major part of his 2020 Conservative leadership platform and popular with Conservative voters. He would not modify CBC Radio or its French language operations, stating they maintain their original public interest mandate. O'Toole previously supported modernizing the CBC without modifying funding.

During the 2020 leadership election, O'Toole made a platform appealing specifically towards Quebec nationalists. O'Toole supports decentralizing the federal government's power in Quebec, having stated he is open to giving the province increased powers over immigration and opposing federal intervention to stop the Quebec ban on religious symbols, arguing that the independence of Quebec's legislature should be protected. He believes that large, federally regulated companies should be required to adhere to Quebec's Charter of the French Language.

In November 2020, O'Toole made a speech to Ryerson Conservatives defending university's namesake Egerton Ryerson where he said the Canadian Indian residential school system was "created to provide education". In December 2020 he retracted his comments and stated Indigenous reconciliation is a priority for him.

O'Toole initially pledged to repeal all gun law changes made by the Trudeau government, though he later stated that the firearms banned in May 2020 would remain banned. However, the current firearms classification system would undergo public review.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was re-elected as prime minister in 2019, O'Toole won re-election in his riding, beating the Liberal candidate by about 10 per cent of the vote.

In December 2019, Andrew Scheer announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader after it was revealed that he had used party funds for his children's private schooling. Scheer remained leader until his successor was elected.

In 2018, after Patrick Brown resigned over accusations of sexual misconduct, O'Toole considered entering the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race. He ultimately passed on the opportunity, instead supporting Christine Elliott. On August 31, 2017, Andrew Scheer appointed O'Toole the official opposition critic for foreign affairs.

Before recreational cannabis use was legalized, O'Toole supported its decriminalization and during his 2017 leadership campaign, he said that Trudeau's plan to legalize it would be impossible to reverse. O'Toole opposes harsh punishments for drug offences, instead supporting treating drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal issue. Law enforcement would focus more on traffickers under O'Toole's proposal and he plans on funding drug rehabilitation. Despite this, he does not support further drug legalization.

On October 14, 2016, O'Toole announced his candidacy for the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. O'Toole ran a positive campaign and avoided personally attacking other candidates during the campaign, arguing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not own optimism. He received endorsements from 31 MPs, 12 former MPs, 17 provincial politicians, and CANZUK International. O'Toole finished in third place, behind Maxime Bernier and the eventual winner Andrew Scheer.

On January 5, 2015, Harper appointed O'Toole as minister of veterans affairs, replacing Julian Fantino. O'Toole prioritized repairing relations with veterans and addressing the complaints Canadian veterans had with Fantino. During his time as veterans affairs minister, he convinced veterans who had sued the Canadian government to place a halt on their lawsuit while they entered into settlement negotiations. In the lawsuit, filed before O'Toole was named minister, the Canadian soldiers argued that the 2006 overhaul of veteran benefits was discriminatory.

In the 2015 election, O'Toole was re-elected as MP for Durham, receiving 45 per cent of the vote, followed by Liberal candidate Corinna Traill with 36 per cent.

Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative party leader after the Liberals won a majority in the 2015 federal election. O'Toole announced that he would seek the interim leadership of the Conservative Party. Rona Ambrose defeated him but named O'Toole the Official Opposition critic for public safety.

During his leadership, O'Toole worked to attract working-class people to the Conservative Party, noting his experience of watching auto workers lose their jobs in his hometown of Bowmanville, and his support for unions. Despite his support for unions, union leaders were skeptical given his previous parliamentary voting record and his pre-2015 free trade-related work. O'Toole also softened his rhetoric, presenting himself as moderate to counter accusations from opponents that he was trying to market to the far-right.

In 2014, O'Toole partnered with Senator Roméo Dallaire to host the first Samuel Sharpe Memorial Breakfast, in honour of former soldier and MP Samuel Simpson Sharpe. Sharpe committed suicide in 1918 following his return home from World War I. O'Toole and Dallaire started the memorial breakfast to bring issues of veterans' mental health to the forefront and to improve access to treatment and resources for soldiers suffering from operational stress injuries. In May 2018, O'Toole introduced a motion to install a plaque commemorating Sharpe on Parliament Hill, which passed unanimously.

In May 2012, O'Toole announced his plans to run as the Conservative candidate in the by-election for Durham, following Bev Oda's resignation, winning the seat on November 26, 2012. In September 2013, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named O'Toole the parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, Ed Fast.

In 2012, O'Toole was awarded the Christopher J. Coulter Young Alumnus Award by Dalhousie University, for his achievements and dedication to community service.

Also in 2012, O'Toole received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. All serving MPs that year were recipients.

O'Toole graduated from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University with a law degree in 2003. He returned to Ontario where he articled at, and later became a lawyer with, Stikeman Elliott, a business law firm in Toronto. During this time, O'Toole primarily practised in the areas of product liability, insolvency, competition and general commercial law. Between 2006 and 2011, O'Toole served as Canadian in-house counsel for Procter & Gamble. He acted as corporate counsel for Gillette, provided commercial and regulatory law advice, was counsel on issues relating to legislation, and investigated counterfeiting operations. In 2011, O'Toole joined the law firm Heenan Blaikie, where he was a registered lobbyist for Facebook, Inc.

In 2000, O'Toole completed his active service in the military. He transferred to the reserves, working as a training officer running flight simulators, while he pursued a law degree. He received the Canadian Forces' Decoration for 12 years of service to Canada.

O'Toole met his wife Rebecca in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1998, and they married in 2000. He has a daughter and a son. O'Toole is a Catholic. He founded True Patriot Love, a nonprofit supporting veterans, members of the military, and their families. In September 2020, O'Toole tested positive for COVID‑19, after a staffer in his office tested positive. His wife also later tested positive for COVID-19, after initially testing negative. They were in self-isolation until September 30, at which point O'Toole returned to Parliament.

In 1997, O'Toole was posted to 12 Wing in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. While serving at this post, O'Toole flew as a tactical navigator on a CH-124 (Sea King) helicopter with 423 Squadron, conducted maritime surveillance, and performed search and rescue and naval support operations. While serving at 12 Wing, O'Toole was promoted to the rank of captain and was awarded the Sikorsky Helicopter Rescue Award for rescuing an injured fisherman at sea.

Born in Montreal, O'Toole grew up in Port Perry and Bowmanville. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1991 and studied at the Royal Military College (RMC) until 1995. He was commissioned in Air Command, serving as an air navigator, eventually attaining the rank of captain. Following his active service, he received a law degree, practicing law for nearly a decade until he was elected to the House of Commons in a 2012 by-election. In 2015, O'Toole briefly served as veterans affairs minister in the Harper government. In 2017, he ran for the party's leadership, finishing third to winner Andrew Scheer.

In 1991, O'Toole joined the military, enrolling at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated with an honours Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science in 1995.

Erin Michael O'Toole PC CD MP (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official Opposition from 2020 to 2022.

O'Toole was born in Montreal, Quebec, on January 22, 1973, the son of Mollie (née Hall) and John O'Toole, who served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Durham in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario between 1995 and 2014. His father is of Irish descent, and his mother was born in London, England, and came to Canada after World War II. Following his mother's death when he was nine years old, his family moved to Port Perry, Ontario, where he attended elementary school. O'Toole and his family later moved to Bowmanville, Ontario, where he graduated from Bowmanville High School.