By Patrick Newhook/February 10, 2022
With Erin O’Toole out of the picture and the federal Conservatives scrambling to reinvent themselves, the party’s former candidate in St. John’s South – Mount Pearl says the party needs to unify if it wants to win.
O’Toole was removed as leader by a vote among the Conservative MPs last week.
Realtor Steve Hodder said he’s been a Conservative Party supporter his entire life and became more actively involved with the party in the 2021 election.
“I wanted to run in the election obviously because I’ve had political aspirations over the years, you know in different levels of government,” said Hodder. “What the CPC had offered in their platform, a lot of it struck home with me on a personal level… every single piece of that platform seemed to strike a chord with me and if it wasn’t something directly with me, it was with a lot of my family and friends.”
Hodder was a big supporter of O’Toole, feeling that he was an honest candidate for Prime Minister who would deliver on his promises and benefit Newfoundland and Labrador.
“I thought very highly of Erin O’Toole. I thought he would have been a fantastic leader for our country,” said Hodder. “He was very supportive the moment I decided to throw my hat into the ring for the election.”
Hodder said the party should try to build on what O’Toole created and focus on unifying.
“Everything that Erin O’Toole did I respected, his positions and stuff,” said Hodder. “I still think that we need to go in that direction, and I guess the primary focus for the Conservatives going forward is to unite the party, to gain momentum from what he has done.”
Right now, Manitoba MP Candice Bergen has been named Interim Leader. Some pundits say her support for the anti-vaxxer protest that caused mayhem in Ottawa, along with similar support demonstrated by other Conservative MPs, has moved the party to the political fringe, effectively scuttling chances of winning election next time around.
That view is reinforced by MP Pierre Poilievre’s announcement that he is seeking the leadership.
Hodder said he hasn’t had a chance to speak with Poilievre yet. But no matter whoever wins the race, he wants to see them carry on with the ideas that O’Toole lined out.
“What I think should happen is obviously build off the momentum that Erin O’Toole had created and if that does mean veering back more to the right than what we had been, that's fine as well,” Hodder said. “I guess the powers that be are going to analyze where we did extremely well and where we need to improve upon. Once we do that and we take that direction and if it’s something that I support, then they’re going to have my full support.”
