Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian lawyer, former military officer and politician who was the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition from 2020 to 2022. O'Toole was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) in 2012, representing Durham until 2023. O'Toole served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 12 years, before becoming a lawyer and entering politics.
Born in Montreal, O'Toole grew up in Port Perry and Bowmanville in Ontario. He joined the military in 1991 and studied at the Royal Military College (RMC) until 1995. He was commissioned in Air Command, serving as an air navigator, eventually attaining the rank of captain. Following his active service, he received a law degree, practicing law for nearly a decade until he was elected to the House of Commons in a 2012 by-election. In 2015, O'Toole briefly served as veterans affairs minister in the Harper government. In 2017, he ran for the party's leadership, finishing third to winner Andrew Scheer.
After Scheer resigned as leader in late 2019, O'Toole ran a successful leadership campaign, defeating former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay in the 2020 leadership election. O'Toole's domestic policies included support for the elimination of the federal deficit, the simplification of federal taxes, a low carbon savings account, and pipeline construction. In foreign policy, he advocated for a agreement and a hard-line approach to the Chinese government. Although he positioned himself as a "true blue" conservative during the leadership race, O'Toole began embracing a more centrist approach, and reversed his previous opposition towards the federal carbon tax and assault weapons ban.
O'Toole lost the 2021 federal election to the Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the Conservatives winning the same number of seats as they held before the election. Although O'Toole pledged to remain as leader, his attempts to move the Conservative Party to the centre gained criticism from a considerable number of party MPs, who ousted him on February 2, 2022, through a leadership review.
Early life and career O'Toole was born in Montreal, Quebec, on January 22, 1973, the son of Mollie ( Hall) and John O'Toole, who served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Durham in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario between 1995 and 2014. His father is of Irish descent. His mother was born in London, England, and came to Canada after World War II. Following his mother's death when he was nine years old, his family moved to Port Perry, Ontario, where he attended elementary school. O'Toole and his family later moved to Bowmanville, Ontario, where he graduated from Bowmanville High School.
In 1991, O'Toole joined the military, enrolling at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated with an honours Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science in 1995.
Military career Following his graduation, O'Toole was commissioned as an officer in the Canadian Forces Air Command. He was first posted to Trenton, Ontario, where he was involved in search and rescue operations. O'Toole also spent time at 17 Wing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he completed his training as an air navigator.
In 1997, O'Toole was posted to 12 Wing in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. While serving at this post, O'Toole flew as a tactical navigator on a CH-124 (Sea King) helicopter with 423 Squadron, conducted maritime surveillance, and performed search and rescue and naval support operations. While serving at 12 Wing, O'Toole was promoted to the rank of captain and was awarded the Sikorsky Helicopter Rescue Award for rescuing an injured fisherman at sea.
In 2000, O'Toole completed his active service in the military. He transferred to the reserves, working as a training officer running flight simulators, while he pursued a law degree. He received the Canadian Forces' Decoration for 12 years of service to Canada.
Legal career O'Toole graduated from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University with a law degree in 2003. He returned to Ontario where he articled at, and later became a lawyer with, Stikeman Elliott, a business law firm in Toronto. During this time, O'Toole primarily practised in the areas of product liability, insolvency, competition and general commercial law. Between 2006 and 2011, O'Toole served as Canadian in-house counsel for Procter & Gamble. He acted as corporate counsel for Gillette, provided commercial and regulatory law advice, was counsel on issues relating to legislation, and investigated counterfeiting operations. In 2011, O'Toole joined the law firm Heenan Blaikie, where he was a registered lobbyist for Facebook, Inc.
Political career Early political career In May 2012, O'Toole announced his plans to run as the Conservative candidate in the by-election for Durham, following Bev Oda's resignation, winning the seat on November 26, 2012. In September 2013, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named O'Toole the parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, Ed Fast.
In 2014, O'Toole partnered with Senator Roméo Dallaire to host the first Samuel Sharpe Memorial Breakfast, in honour of former soldier and MP Samuel Simpson Sharpe. Sharpe committed suicide in 1918 following his return home from World War I. O'Toole and Dallaire started the memorial breakfast to bring issues of veterans' mental health to the forefront and to improve access to treatment and resources for soldiers suffering from operational stress injuries. In May 2018, O'Toole introduced a motion to install a plaque commemorating Sharpe on Parliament Hill, which passed unanimously.
On January 5, 2015, Harper appointed O'Toole as minister of veterans affairs, replacing Julian Fantino. O'Toole prioritized repairing relations with veterans and addressing the complaints Canadian veterans had with Fantino. During his time as veterans affairs minister, he convinced veterans who had sued the Canadian government to place a halt on their lawsuit while they entered into settlement negotiations. In the lawsuit, filed before O'Toole was named minister, the Canadian soldiers argued that the 2006 overhaul of veteran benefits was discriminatory.
In the 2015 election, O'Toole was re-elected as MP for Durham, receiving 45 per cent of the vote, followed by Liberal candidate Corinna Traill with 36 per cent.
2017 Conservative leadership campaign
Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative party leader after the Liberals won a majority in the 2015 federal election. O'Toole announced that he would seek the interim leadership of the Conservative Party. Rona Ambrose defeated him but named O'Toole the Official Opposition critic for public safety.
On October 14, 2016, O'Toole announced his candidacy for the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. O'Toole ran a positive campaign and avoided personally attacking other candidates during the campaign, arguing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not own optimism. He received endorsements from 31 MPs, 12 former MPs, and 17 provincial politicians. O'Toole finished in third place, behind Maxime Bernier and the eventual winner Andrew Scheer.
Foreign affairs critic and second reelection In 2018, after Patrick Brown resigned over accusations of sexual misconduct, O'Toole considered entering the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race. He ultimately passed on the opportunity, instead supporting Christine Elliott. On August 31, 2017, Andrew Scheer appointed O'Toole the official opposition critic for foreign affairs.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was re-elected as prime minister in 2019, O'Toole won re-election in his riding, beating the Liberal candidate by about 10 per cent of the vote.
2020 Conservative leadership campaign
In December 2019, Andrew Scheer announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader after it was revealed that he had used party funds for his children's private schooling. Scheer remained leader until his successor was elected.
O'Toole announced that he would seek the leadership of the Conservative Party in late January 2020. During his campaign, he framed himself as a "true blue" conservative, implying that rivals like Peter MacKay were less conservative. It helped that Pierre Poilievre, who was expected to get support from the right of the party, decided not to run. O'Toole's tone was angrier this time than during his first leadership run, which he stated was due to his increasing worry about the country after five years under a Trudeau government. He believed that his status as an MP would allow him to hold Trudeau accountable as soon as he became leader. During the campaign, O'Toole alleged that MacKay's campaign obtained stolen internal campaign data from him. A former intern at Calgary Centre MP Greg McLean's office later admitted to obtaining the data.
O'Toole won the leadership election after three rounds were counted, replacing Andrew Scheer. His victory was attributed partially to his pitch to socially conservative voters including supporters of candidates Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis to mark him as their second or third choice. He generally performed better in Conservative- and Bloc Québécois-held ridings, in rural areas, and in areas with fewer visible minorities. Despite representing a riding on the eastern edge of the Greater Toronto Area, O'Toole performed poorly there. People's Party leader Maxime Bernier criticized him in remarks dismissed by fellow leadership candidate Sloan, stating that he was not a real conservative.
Leadership of the Conservative Party Shortly after becoming leader, O'Toole said that triggering a fall election was not his priority and he preferred to focus instead on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and finding jobs for the unemployed. He reaffirmed his position in December 2020, stating that an election should not take place until after the pandemic had ended. Still, he said the Conservative Party was prepared for another election if one was called. On September 2, 2020, he announced Candice Bergen would serve as his deputy. O'Toole revealed his Shadow Cabinet the following week, with most roles changing from the previous Scheer-led one.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Toole criticized the Trudeau government for not approving rapid and at-home testing options, arguing that the economy would be unstable if they or a vaccine were unavailable. O'Toole has praised Alberta's pandemic response for allowing testing at pharmacies and being less restrictive than other provinces. When distribution of a vaccine was near, he criticized the government for being unable to deliver doses as quickly as other countries like the US and the UK. He called for more transparency regarding the vaccine rollout plan and stated that Canada only focused on preordering vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna after a partnership with a Chinese company failed.
In response to the WE Charity scandal, O'Toole proposed creating an anti-corruption committee tasked with releasing related details and other possible ethics violations made by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the defeat of the motion after Trudeau declared it a confidence vote, O'Toole proposed that these instead be done by the health committee.
During his leadership, O'Toole worked to attract working-class people to the Conservative Party, noting his experience of watching auto workers lose their jobs in his hometown of Bowmanville, and his support for unions. Despite his support for unions, union leaders were skeptical given his previous parliamentary voting record and his pre-2015 free trade-related work. O'Toole also softened his rhetoric, presenting himself as moderate to counter accusations from opponents that he was trying to market to the far-right.