Erin O’Toole is the new leader of the federal Conservative Party, much to the delight of Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer.
O’Toole claimed 57% of the vote, beating out former Deputy Prime Minister Peter McKay.
Zimmer told MyPGNow.com in order for the Tories to re-claim government, they need to attract people who don’t classify themselves as Conservative.
“The example I always use is that approximately 33% of people are consistently conservative in Canada and we need to augment our vote to about 10% of other groups that don’t identify themselves as Conservative with the hope that those results can give us the extra 10-15% we need to secure a general election.”
The result of O’Toole winning is coming across as an upset to many in the political world as most expected McKay to walk away with the leadership crown.
However, Zimmer stated the 47-year-old from has a lot of pull in Ontario and Quebec something previous leader Andrew Scheer didn’t have.
“Yeah, there is no doubt to have someone from Ontario, especially to win Ontario and to have the strength that he has in Quebec where he had a thousand more points or close to that over Peter McKay in Quebec, which shows his strength in the country’s two most populous provinces.”
“He’s a great campaigner and we knew that he had a great team around him and it just proved that it was firing on all cylinders on the ground for him. Again, the results on the ground showed his effectiveness in both Ontario and Quebec.”
While the Conservative leadership was viewed as a two-horse race, Zimmer believed one of the dark horse candidates made it interesting.
“I think something can be said for Leslyn Lewis and her showing was very strong and we expected that too and give kudos to her team for really mobilizing a lot of voters across the country to vote for her and I hope to help her win a seat in the next election.”
Zimmer concluded by saying the party is preparing for the possibility of heading back to the polls if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drops the writ next month.
Join us in congratulating our new leader @ErinOTooleMP! #cpcldr #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/npDWDG62ll
— Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) August 24, 2020
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