Ottawa (CU)_Canada’s opposition leader Erin O’Toole has decided to disregard his party’s scepticism on climate change and has pledged to present a “serious and comprehensive” plan to address the climate crisis ahead of the next election.
“I’m the leader, I’m in charge,” he said during a press conference, adding that as the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, climate change is an important issue for him.
However, events at a Conservative policy convention which wrapped on Saturday (20 March) showed the divisiveness within the party.
In a speech on Friday, O’Toole called on the party members to be open to new ideas as they can no longer “ignore the reality of climate change”. He claimed that he did not want the Conservatives to be branded as “climate change deniers”.
Yet, a day later, 54 percent of convention delegates voted against the policy update, which included a proposal to update the policy book by adding “climate change is real”, and that the Conservative Party is “willing to act” on the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, O’Toole played down the resolution saying it was only one out of 34 resolutions at the convention.
Independent MP Derek Sloan, who was expelled from the Conservative party earlier this year, claimed that O’Toole is being disrespectful of party members by disregarding their vote on the environment policy.
“He’s basically saying ‘I don’t care what the membership has said. I’m going to do what I want, and I am the leader,’” Sloan said. “They expect what they vote on to be taken into consideration.”
Jack Fonseca, political operations director for the Campaign Life Coalition, claimed that a Conservative leader should have “conservative” policies, instead of enacting “flawed unscientific Liberal policies”.
According to pollster Nik Nanos, this situation between the Tories would enable Liberals to assert that the Conservative Party is out of touch with Canadians on environmental policy.
Apart from his plans to address the climate crisis, the Conservative chief has also revealed his position on the carbon tax imposed by the Trudeau government in 2019, pledging to offer a bold new plan to replace that tax.
