E rin O’Toole is slowly building an army of support among Conservative members. Little by little he’s winning over both his own colleagues and the conservative grassroots with his ambitious vision of a prosperous, forward-looking Canada that tackles problems head on. He’s not just a warmed up Harper leftover and he’s not trying to radically redefine Canadian conservatism. Erin is like a combination of John Diefenbaker and Hugh Segal. He strikes me as being in the tradition of the One Nation Tory, but with specifically targeted ambitions on national defence, effective governance and staving off Canada’s looming demographic challenges. In this interview Erin lays out his vision for opening the north, rebuilding the military, countering liberal media bias and more.









Read on...













H odgson : Thanks for taking some time out from campaigning to speak with us today.









O ’Toole : No problem, we’re pretty happy with where we’re at and I just wanted to say I remember a year ago your website put out an article saying that the next Conservative Party leader should be Erin O’Toole and I wasn’t thinking about it at the time, but I remember reading it and it was a very positive piece and I appreciated it.





(The piece Erin refers to was O'Toole Must Lead The Conservatives, written by our former colleague Trevor Norris)









Hodgson : You’ve got a law degree and you’re an MP. Why bother with the stress of trying to lead this party to victory? Why do you want to do this?









O’Toole : Canada. I wanted to make sure that our party and our conservative approach to things makes the country better and halts the decline that we’re already seeing after a year and half of Justin Trudeau.





You’re right, I was a lawyer for a number of years, but my first job was in the military. Anyone who joins the military right out of highschool does so out of service and a desire to make the country a better place and to put their own interests behind that of the good of the country. It was the way I was raised and now as an MP I want our party to be smart as we tackle the future. We’ve got a great track record, but we need a new style going forward in order to win. We can win the next election and it will be critically important we do so after the decline under Trudeau.









Hodgson : You’ve got the second most endorsements in caucus. What does this mean to you?









O’Toole : It’s critical. I’ve been in elected politics the least amount of time compared to other caucus candidates. I’m not a career politician, I was in the military for 12 years and the private sector for the better part of a decade, and I’ve only been in politics for 4 years. The fact that so many of my colleagues have stepped up and joined my campaign shows that they feel I have the right mixture of experience and approach in order to win the next election.









Hodgson : I’ve read through your extensive policy in regards to the military and I find it refreshing and impressive. You want to double the defence budget and hit 2% of GDP spending on our military. A lot of conservatives in Canada felt disappointed that Harper didn’t get more done on this file. What do you envision for our forces?









O’Toole : As a founding member of NATO and as a country that likes to feel that we are a key part of this western alliance that provides stability and opportunity and freedom, we need to start pulling our weight. You see the debate with President Trump talking about the free riders in NATO and I want us to ramp up on a plan that allows us to meet our NATO requirement. I want our men and women to have the resources that are needed. I also want us to tackle some of the unique challenges the 21st century is facing. I want to increase spending on cyber warfare and cyber security. That’s the future and if we focus on this it will have industrial/economic trickle over effects into our I.T. and tech space in this country. We can be a NATO centre of excellence in this.





I also want to make sure we express our sovereignty in our north. I want to complete our naval port in Nunavut and rebuild the reserves in the Yukon and the Canadian Rangers. At a time when Russia is invading Ukraine and not honouring boundaries, we have to exert our presence in our north. It’s the largest part of our landmass and with increasing resource exploration and tourism up there we have to make our presence felt.





I want to rebuild the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves and training units across the country.

If we do all this then Canada can be a voice of reason and seriousness on the world stage, because we’ll be leading our commitments and playing a key role. It’s important to me to be the first veteran since Pearson to be a Prime Minister and I think a lot of veterans and military members appreciate this.









Hodgson : Why is this file so difficult to fix. There seems to be a lot of inertia on these issues. Why is it so hard?









O’Toole : Canadians have a deep and long respect and admiration for the men and women who serve us, but the military got neglected during the decade of darkness under Jean Chretien and I saw it first hand. We need to keep these issues at the forefront and talk about it more. We need to explain things more and promote this fine institution. We need to explain why it’s important for Canada to play a role in NATO and why we need to properly fund our armed forces.









Hodgson : I like the nation building aspect of your ambitions for the military. Using investment to open up the north for example. This is something new.









O’Toole : Many countries don’t fully acknowledge our full claim to the arctic and that’s a problem. If we can’t protect our sovereignty it’s a problem. Canadians take pride in the north and we need to make sure we protect all parts of it. That means doubling the military budget so we can do what we need to do.









Hodgson : What’s the deal with CANZUK?







