It’s a story Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Todd Doherty has seen before.
A comfortable win for himself in the riding, but another loss for the party nationally.
They are now 0 for 3 against Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.
We asked Doherty what went wrong ?
“I think that those thoughts and discussions will continue as we move forward over the next few weeks. I am the most competitive person that’s out there. Our whole Conservative team runs to win, and we’re all disappointed. There is no one more disappointed than our leader. And I think those discussions will continue as we move forward throughout the next coming days, weeks and months.”
Doherty does say that they need to tell a better story to offset some of the stereotypes out there about Conservatives, things like the climate, helping the poor and abortion, that he says just aren’t true.
“Even in 2019 we put forward a very ambitious climate action plan, and policies that took real action on fighting climate. The abortion debate is done in our country, that is something that we need to move on from. I personally don’t believe a politician or government has the right to tell you who you can pray to, who you can love, and what you do with your body. If there is something that we need to do is we need to tell a better story about who we are. We need Canadians to have a reason to vote for us and that we’re not the scary boogeyman that Justin Trudeau and others would like to paint us out to be.”
He says if they do a better job of telling their story, he thinks Canadians will be able to see themselves in them a little bit more.
Despite the loss federally, Doherty says he still supports their leader.
“100 percent. He is our leader and we will do what we need to do as we move forward as a caucus and as a team and a membership. Those decisions will be made as we move forward but Erin O’Toole is our leader, and we will continue moving down the path of what we need to.”
Doherty says they need to unite as a team and build as a team as they move forward, and focus their attention on serving Canadians and taking advantage of this minority Parliament to push through some great legislation.
“Like let’s bring 9-8-8 to Canada, lets do whatever we can to make sure our frontline personnel, like my bill C-2-11, the one that we tabled in the last Parliament. Lets make sure that those frontline personnel, whether they are nurses or first responders, that in the course of their job that violence isn’t part of that job.”
–With files from George Henderson, MyCaribooNow.com
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