I did vote for O'toole in the last leadership race and that was a mistake. He was nowhere near the leader that I thought he would be. He did mediocre in the debates and was not clear on many issues when facing the media which any Conservative leader should have been with a hostile crowd.
I think the Conservatives have learned a hard lesson with their lackluster performance in the last election and the popular rise of the PPC (even if they didn't win seats). The base supporter that votes Conservative want a clear alternative to the Liberals and NDP.
They have views and aims that they want their political party to reflect. Simply trying to be a lightweight version of the Liberals will not cut it.
PP to me promises to be that clear cut alternative even more so than LL. The fact that he has a tremendous amount of political experience as well as being fluently bilingual is a real bonus.
I wouldn't beat yourself up about that. At the time, we talked about who to support too. Our association wanted Mackay.
This past election, we knew Trudeau and the Liberals had made a few mistakes and could be called on it. For some reason, whoever was advising O'Toole didn't go after them or help with the debates. The campaign stalled almost from the start. He came across as indecisive.
Of course, Bernier and the PPC siphoned off some votes too. It was a badly run election for us.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/AP39Jhm.jpg)
