ONE YEAR LATER —Three-hundred and sixty-five days have passed since the worst one of ERIN O'TOOLE's political career. On his last day as Conservative leader, 73 members of his caucus voted to give him the boot. Only 45 supported him. With “Freedom Convoy” horns blaring on Wellington Street, O'Toole was out. It was a time. This week, the Durham MP sat down with Playbook for a rare interview in his Confederation Building office. He reflected on winning the popular vote in 2021 but still losing the election, failing to navigate the turmoil that followed, and charting where he goes from here. (We also talked about Canada's place in the world, picking battles in Parliament, the scourge of misinformation, and why Substack beats Twitter. Watch for more POLITICO coverage today.) Playbook's first question: How long was he preoccupied by that tumultuous time? "I thought about it a lot for six to eight months afterwards," he said. "Because I'm worried about the country and our party all at the same time. Obviously, replaying what could I have done differently. And what undermined my leadership following the election. I played all of that through quite regularly." — So close, yet so far: O'Toole says he's at peace with the election result. And even his ouster. He does not sound bitter. But he clearly hasn't let go completely. He referred repeatedly to rosy seat projections on the cusp of the 2021 campaign's home stretch. The Tory campaign was criticized for a major flip-flop on gun policy, and a post-mortem pointed to a lack of outreach to cultural communities. O'Toole says Covid was a ballot box issue. "We were winning the seat count a week out from the election, five days out from the election," he said. "But the very fear that the prime minister relied on to launch the election [meant] ultimately, we didn't make enough people comfortable in the suburbs on our approach to handling Covid." — Any regrets? Not winning. "That's the regret, because I do think that a different approach might have reduced some of the polarization we see." — A rabble-rousing caucus: The howls of discontent started well before last February. On the Curse of Politics pod, JENNI BYRNE was dismissing O'Toole as a fake Conservative. The day after the loss, party national councilor BERT CHEN launched a petition to dump the leader. Sen. DENISE BATTERS collected signatures of her own. The caucus grew more restless. "Obviously, I didn't manage it effectively enough," he tells Playbook. O'Toole blames Covid isolation, in part. MPs were distracted in Zoom caucus meetings. They didn't meet in-person as a group until after their third-straight loss to JUSTIN TRUDEAU's Liberals. Plus, a bunch of them were spending a lot of time on the internet. "There was a section that went right down the rabbit hole of Covid — ivermectin, the whole nine yards," he says. "I'd always try to inspire and convince. But in some cases, that was not possible." — Wielding the shiv: "If some people have a bit of an agenda or want to be at the epicenter of power, and they don't think they are, their ambition may eclipse the well-being of the team," O'Toole says, not naming names. "It wasn't really about learning the lessons from the election. It was really about breaking up the status quo of the team I established." Some MPs complained their leader was too "top down" on pushing support for public health measures. Others blamed him for not endorsing a federal vaccine mandate. — An old classic: It all had O'Toole likening himself to the flannel-clad main character in the Log Driver's Waltz. "I was the lumberjack riding down the river, but on two logs. And over time, the logs were getting further apart. And I was trying desperately to keep them from getting too far apart. Not just for me to stay dry. But because I do worry about the increasing kind of — whether you call it polarization, whether you call it division, that we're seeing not just within the country, but within parties, organizations, businesses." — Disappointment: O'Toole found harsh words for some of the lifetime partisans who had it in for him. "My biggest shock would be some people that have come from the political side, whether it's [starting as] interns or staff, and haven't been part of an organization outside of politics," he says. "There's a little too much of the, sort of, campus drama. "That's politics, after all. There's some, though, when you have a personal relationship, it was a bit disappointing for sure." — Is he running again? Maybe. The prospect of another term is on O'Toole's mind as speculation swirls in Ottawa, like clockwork, around a potential spring election. Here's part of his answer: "I do think certain indications look like [the Liberals] may go. So I've got to commit to running again, and seeing what the party is going to do, and if and where I can help. Those conversations will have to come. "Pierre deserved the fall to get his footing. And I think he's done that fairly well. And he gets a normal experience. He gets to travel and all this sort of stuff. He's not stuck on Zoom. So as we approach the election, that's where I'm gonna have to see where I can play a role." Try reading those tea leaves. O'Toole's final words on the subject: "Whatever I can do to help us get over the line, that's what I want to do. I came here as a proud Conservative. Whenever I do leave, if I leave in the next decade or the next 10 days, I'm going to leave proud and help the team and be a Conservative again on the sidelines." Don't bet on it being 10 years or 10 days. But don't rule out another kick at the can. — Want to pick apart every sentence of our interview? Pro s can read the transcript here.
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