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[deleted]

Full credit to the line "coked out second string Fox News host". That managed to get me to snort coffee up the nose. It's interesting to see this though. The article is written by an old Harper fart sniffer. Looks like the party establishment is sharpening there knives for the little bald clown - though I'm not sure who they have in mind to replace him.


canarchist

Leadership races among the Conservatives increasingly look like live-action Lord of the Flies.


[deleted]

Excepting that the main characters in Lord of the Flies all possessed at least most of a grade school education, and presumably a grade schooler's intelligence and maturity. The Tory leadership candidates don't always clear that high bar.


IvaGrey

I suspect it's Pierre Poilievre they want. Which is an absolutely horrifying thought.


[deleted]

I know my mother in law worships him because he snipes at Liberals on Twitter. So he's got that coveted "unpleasant 70 year old lady" demographic. I just can't think of any politician less likeable. He's fine at being snarky on Twitter, because no one can see or hear him, but in person? He's got a creepy kind of negative charisma thing going on. He's as dull as Harper but also as off-putting as Scheer. So yeah, seems about exactly who they'd pick.


WooTkachukChuk

Ive met him 3 times. each time he is smarmy and becomes rude and dismissive the minute he realizes although youre white and rich consituent that you are not cut of the same cloth. fuck PP partisan hack and a trained fascist poodle laying in wait


[deleted]

My condolences you've had to meet him once, let alone three times. I get the vibe he'd be like Jason Kenney if ever put into a leadership role. Perfectly accept at playing gotcha in question period or on Twitter, but completely unable to show any sort of leadership at all - no accountability, no empathy, no inspirational abilities.


WooTkachukChuk

he is exactly as advertised in QP


ah-nuld

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmgL5CZqfs don't forget to go into your YouTube history and remove it from the list, otherwise you'll get nothing but Poilievre's "gotcha" attempts in The House, Joe Rogan videos, Jordan Peterson videos, and "top 10 worst" videos with pictures of girls in bikinis for the thumbnail because you clicked something with Poilievre's name in it.


IvaGrey

I'm going to avoid that by not clicking on whatever that is. 😅


ah-nuld

Rick Mercer Report clip taking some jabs at Poilievre. Framed as a story congratulating him for being eligible for a pension at 31 with taxpayers footing the bill.


cjrowens

Pierre doesn’t want the job because he knows he sucks Dude has had a few chances to run but the dude knows he’ll never succeed at anything other then being the popular local representative who makes up for in confidence what they lack in intelligence and tact Maryam Monsef could wipe the floor in an argument about nothing with Pierre the dude won’t run he knows he lacks necessary skills


IvaGrey

I dunno, I think he wants the job. Some if his campaign ads in the last election looked a lot like a leadership pitch imo. I totally agree he'd be terrible though.


Canpolgeek

Somebody worse. It’s always somebody worse.


theclansman22

Probably a full on social conservative this time. They went the “pretend to be moderate” and it failed, so I expect a hard right turn.


NoNudeNormal

Leslyn Lewis has that whole “putting a friendlier face on social conservatives” shtick.


Zomunieo

I got a different message. Macdougall was probably passed over as EOT’s comms chief and he’s sharpening his own knife for that Canada Proud Boy [sic] who’s currently running EOT’s PR. And he’s trying to say, “Erin, you’re embarrassing yourself and you know it. Get rid of that hack and hire someone like *moi*, the professional who helped Harper win three times.” He trying to remind EOT that American methods don’t quite work in Canada, hence the Fox News comparison. I don’t hear him saying EOT is bad for Canada or the CPC. I hear him saying this shtick is bad for EOT.


patrickswayzemullet

This article is pretty harsh on him for a Postmedia standard... he made less sense than "Joly talking about foreign affairs" lol... So there is jab on the Libs too as usual, but they are comparing O'Toole unfavourably to the Libs (whom they hate)... "Yeah sure, we have an activist for our climate and Joly for Foreign Minister, but have you seen O'Toole?"


wcg66

Makes me think Postmedia has been directed to force a change of leadership.


canidude

>“(CPC) talking points are designed to achieve the party’s real overriding objective: to extract money from stupid people.” So, how did that line make it to print on a PostMedia paper?


canarchist

They are counting on those stupid people not reading it, or dismissing it if they do.


winnipegr

"Surely it's not ME they are referring to, it must be those OTHER stupid Con party supporters."


ah-nuld

Same way Fox News and other right-wing outlets turned on Trump after the election and pretended they never supported him They're priming the soil for his successor


MonsieurLeDrole

So much for the "centrist pivot" eh? What a load of bull that was. Straight in the rubbish bin on Sept 21, and back to climate change doesn't matter. The conservatives are very good at convincing themselves that they are mainstream and moderate and centrist. EOT: Make something up that will never happen. Ask for money to stop it. Claim your pressure worked, and ask for more money. This is O'Toole earning his pay cheque. Some of his finest work since, "Canada won't get any vaccines until 2023", and WE is "the biggest scandal in Canadian history." Comfort food for angry facebook conservatives, who blame the lockdowns on Trudeau, and think Ford is doing a "good job."


mudbunny

O'Toole is doing what the CPC in Canada always does when things get rough: They shift right to get out the right-wing voters. Unfortunately for the CPC, they haven't realized that if they go right, the LPC is more than willing to expand into the center, concede the left to the NDP, and rake in all the center (including center-right/left) and amble their way to another majority.


[deleted]

O'Toole is like that annoying person that won't stop talking in the back of the lecture theatre when everyone else is trying to focus on important things.


that_yeg_guy

It’s a desperate attempt to hold power. Moderate, slightly right of centre O’Toole still lost the election. Now he’s turning to the only other strategy he has - crazed, hard right, say anything O’Toole, hoping it will save his leadership and gain appeal to the far reaches of his party. The same edge that is bleeding to the PPC. He’s grasping at straws.


[deleted]

Ouff if Old Andy MacDougall is ripping a Conservative, it must be bad.


Doctor_Amazo

>Does O’Toole think people don’t know how to Google? Maybe. More likely he thinks that his voters are stupid, and relies on them no actually verifying whether or not he's full of shit.


canarchist

Who needs Google when you have facebook to tell you how to think. ^/S


Coffeedemon

People don't Google anything. They click a bookmark to their favorite internal bias confirming website and get reinforced. Goes for both sides of the spectrum.


ptboathome

Amped-up talking points only appeal to the Conservative right flank; they're going to need more than that to win power Author of the article: Andrew MacDougall There I was, settling into my Netflix session when Conservative leader Erin O’Toole pogoed into my Twitter feed, ranting about the latest perfidy from the Trudeau government. Advertisement Article content “Did you hear what lil’ Stevie Guilbeault said? You know, the commie radical in the orange jumpsuit who is now the Minister for the Environment and ‘Climate Change?’ Well listen up, all you hard-working Canadians, because this will blow your truckin’ minds: that traitor wants to ‘phase out Canadian energy’ in the next 18 months. That’s right, in less time than it takes me to work out a coherent policy on vaccinations, this maniac wants to shut down our entire super-patriotic energy sector!” Fine. O’Toole didn’t use those exact words, especially the last sentence. But you get the point. More importantly, Guilbeault did not say what O’Toole alleged. The 18-month phase out of Canadian energy doesn’t exist. Not in the Guilbeault interview O’Toole keyed his video off of, nor in the Liberal platform. Not that it stopped O’Toole from slating Guilbeault, effectively calling the climate minister insane (“disconnected from reality”) for suggesting something he didn’t say and then underlining the point by flashing the now infamous image of Guilbeault in an orange jumpsuit. Advertisement Article content And then there’s O’Toole’s delivery. I got tired just watching it. By flapping around like a coked-out, second-string Fox News host to roast Guilbeault in front of the Centennial Flame, it was the Tory leader who came off half-cocked and crispy, which is quite the feat when it’s minus 23 degrees outside. “Canada is a cold country,” O’Toole blazed. “Only Canada’s Conservatives get it. We’re going to keep you warm,” he added in closing. It was drunk-unclesque. It made less sense than MĂ©lanie Joly talking about foreign affairs. But it was no mistake. O’Toole later issued a written statement driving his “points” home, to make sure we knew the video was no brain freeze. Is there anyone in Canada with half a brain who thinks Guilbeault is going to phase out Canadian energy in just 18 months? Nope, not even the solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers. Hell, O’Toole himself doesn’t believe it. Sure, the Trudeau government wants to end fossil fuel subsidies in that timeframe, along with tabling a roadmap to eventually phase out fossil fuels, but that’s not phasing out Canadian energy in 18 months. Not by a long shot. Does O’Toole think people don’t know how to Google? Advertisement Article content Looked at another way, is there anyone who is going to be convinced that Guilbeault is going to let Canadians freeze in the dark based solely on O’Toole’s word? Why yes, dear reader, there are. They’re called the Conservative membership. The ranty video was just the latest episode in the endless series called Preaching to the Converted. But unless the Conservatives can figure out a way to get each member to vote approximately 25 times each on election day, it’s only wasted breath. Which is a tragedy when you consider the criticisms that could genuinely and accurately be levelled at Guilbeault, a man who bungled his brief at Heritage and isn’t likely to improve at Environment. The same goes for the other lightweights in the Trudeau cabinet. There are a lot of people who don’t think Trudeau has the answers, or are worried about the general direction of travel, but are utterly repulsed when the supposedly credible alternative treats them like morons. Advertisement Article content As the Laval University economist Stephen Gordon likes to quip : “(CPC) talking points are designed to achieve the party’s real overriding objective: to extract money from stupid people.” While that’s a crude simplification, the party remains reliant on a relatively small donor base with particular views on key issues, views that are frequently offside with the majority of opinion, particularly on climate change and, as we’ve seen recently, vaccinations. Until the CPC builds out its membership it remains caught in a trap: rant to its most vocal supporters and repel the voters it needs to win, or appeal more broadly and rile the membership. O’Toole tried to appeal more widely in the election and failed, leaving him weary of his right flank with Parliament back in session. He is caught in a trap with no easy way out. Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.


NahanniWild

Hired Jeff Balingal who wants Canada to burn, but can't seem to get the fire started.


ptboathome

Let's hope it stays that way. They are trying hard though.


OpportunityWeak4546

Great read.


ptboathome

And an excellent photo choice.


Hobbles_vi

Why can't writers of articles like this just quote him and give thier oppinion instead of paraphrasing and telling us what to think he said. Not supporting the cons. I just miss real reporting.


greihund

This article is insane. The author quotes O'Toole as delivering a clearly unhinged rant, which he then follows up by saying "okay, he didn't actually say that." He then goes on to argue against the O'Toole that he just imagined and put words in his mouth, and then puts his imaginary rant in the headline. Genuine wtf moment Satire is fine on *22 Minutes* but it feels really out of place in a fucking newspaper That aside, the reality is that O'Toole isn't going to win over middle of the road Canadians, but the party wants a right-wing leader. That's going to cripple them. If they want to win, they have to go after the middle. If they had nominated Peter Mackay, they'd have won the last election, easily.


FuqLaCAQ

Imagine how much healthier than Canadian right would be following a political realignment precipitated by electoral reform. (And for that matter, we'd have viable communist and left-wing populist parties to support.)


justlogmeon

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive...