Patrone: Team Tory Video Takes Spotlight Off O’Toole

Fresh off the Conservative’s latest election defeat, the party is clearly eager to show Canadians it’s ready to fight hard during this parliamentary session. We see this in the party’s spirited attack on the Trudeau government’s economic record amidst inflationary pressures threatening to make Christmas somewhat less than merry for millions of Canadians.

In its latest anti-Trudeau attack ads, the party rejigged its marketing approach, opting to give its leader Erin O’Toole a lower profile in favour of focussing on ‘Team Tory.’

It’s come months too late but it may have finally dawned on the O’Toole team, making an unappealing leader the ‘face’ of the party is a losing strategy.

Still, the party has come out swinging early in this Parliamentary session. I’m not sure where this scrappy attitude was during the election campaign.

To the dismay of conservatives, O’Toole moved the party to the centre on issues like climate change, flip-flopped on gun control, and talked like a Liberal on fiscal matters including deficits.

His uninspiring performance prompted hundreds of thousands of Tory supporters to stay home rather than bothering to cast a ballot. Thousands of others voted for Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party.

Instead of providing full-throated support for free-market capitalism and smaller government, the insipid O’Toole campaign served up thin liberal gruel. The man who touted himself as the “true blue conservative” in winning the leadership of the party last year seemed tentative, almost apologetic in trying to attract Liberal support.

Despite winning the popular vote, the CPC lost to the Liberals who garnered a record low 32 percent of votes cast. Canadians wanted to change, but O’Toole seemed to be promising more of the same.

Judging by the left-wing media’s defence of O’Toole’s continued leadership, the Liberal Party would love to keep him around for at least one more beating. So now we have a party that’s putting a fresh coat of paint on its marketing strategy by highlighting putting other CPC MPs in the spotlight instead of the leader.

Could it work?

It seems to be a last ditch effort to save O’Toole from being pushed out in a leadership review.

His problem is the same, no credibility. O’Toole sold party members a phoney bill of goods in touting himself as a real conservative and there is still a palpable sense of betrayal amongst many in the party.

Only this week, I referred to him as a eunuch on my Sauga960am radio show but his performance lately suggests he’s finally got a bit of fire in the belly.

Is it too late?

Canadians gave him a chance to prove himself. What they got was a man who appears to stand for nothing but his own desire to have the fancy title and the nice office.

That’s not good enough, nor should it be.

It’s time for an overhaul at the top, not just a fresh marketing campaign that simply de-emphasizes a failed leader.

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