Category: Erin O'Toole

Conservative Leadership Candidates and the Monarchy: Erin O'Toole

2/10/2020

I had a chance to meet with leadership
candidate Erin O'Toole this morning
during his campaign stop in Moncton. This
is Erin's second attempt to become the
leader of the Conservative Party. I have
contacted Erin before but due to how
the last survey was conducted it ended up
causing us both a headache. As such I
really wanted to get his reply in-person this
time. The results of the Q&A are below.

What are your views on the monarchy?

This was the one question I didn't have to ask in-person as he
answered it the last go around:

"I was very proud to have received The Queen's Commission in the Canadian
Armed Forces, and it hangs in my office. I have worked indirectly with the Royal
Family on the True Patriot Love Foundation - a military charity I co-founded - and
for which I received Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee medal. The photo book of
Prince Harry's visit to Canada House for this charity sits on the coffee table in my
Hill office. And it was this organization that successfully bid for Canada to host this
year's Invictus Games, led by Prince Harry. There is nobody in the race who has
more of a direct association with the monarchy, nor, I believe, is there anyone in
the race who has been more publicly supportive of the monarchy than I. One of my
most widely reported policies during this race is all about working closer with our
Commonwealth allies. I have raised the monarchy and its strengths in my many
discussions about the CANZUK policy, which would create a trade and security
pact for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The above is a snapshot to
give you a flavour of my track record and consistent and steadfast support for the
monarchy as a foundational element of our parliamentary democracy and a
positive force in our society." (2017)

A quick check of openparliament.ca brought up a couple
examples of Mr. O'Toole's regard for the monarchy.

As prime minister would you make use of the
Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments
that was active between 2010 and 2015?

Erin stated that he supports the reactivation of this
committee.

During the previous parliament the government
cancelled a program that mailed physical copies of
the Queen's portrait to any Canadian who asked free
of charge. Would you restore this program?

Erin stated that he would reinstate this program and that he
was critical at the time of the decision by the government.

While I couldn't find his opposition to ending the program
online he did link to an article on his MP page about the
problems in regard to ending it.

The government also removed the Queen's portrait
from the lobby of the Foreign Affairs Office and
replaced it with paintings by Alfred Pallen. Would
you find a way to have both paintings and portrait
share the ample wall space of the Foreign Affairs
Office lobby?

Erin stated support for this idea in principle. He only
hesitated to fully get behind this idea due to not being entirely
sure how much space was available. He mentioned it has been
several years since he was last in that building.

I would like to thank Mr. O'Toole for taking the time to
answer my questions.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Candidate Erin O'Toole and the Monarchy Revisited

4/9/2017

Recent events have necessitated a re-visiting
of Conservative Leadership Candidate Erin
O'Toole's views on the monarchy. This is
due to Mr. O'Toole objecting to my
characterization of his views in my last post.
This situation has been quite distressing as,
while not a journalist, I do try to be accurate
in reporting the views of others. Accuracy is
important in an era of 'fake news' and casual
regard for the truth. As such I took the
charge of misrepresentation very seriously.

In my previous post I stated that Mr. O'Toole 'refused' to
answer my questions regarding the monarchy. As a result
several people have interpreted this to mean that Mr. O'Toole
doesn't support the monarchy. It was not my intention at all!
While I might be disappointed in such refusals to reply to
questions I have always viewed a refusal as being an
essentially neutral response. However, I understand why
people might not read it that way and for that I apologize.
Further, Mr. O'Toole has stated that the idea he 'refused' to answer my question is simply false. I have more to say on this
but first I would like to go over the events that led to this
point.

I would like to quickly review the process I used to contact
Mr. O'Toole (and the other candidates). My primary method
of communication has been email for a couple of reasons:
-Its often the primary means of contacting the candidate.
-It creates a written record that I can refer back to.
-Searching for an email is easier than most social media posts.

However, as the months started ticking down I did start also
contacting candidates via Facebook. This did yield results and
I did not perceive of it as being a potential problem. The
following is the private message I sent to Mr. O'Toole's
campaign through Facebook on January 30th:

"Greetings Mr. O'Toole,
NOTE: I have previously contacted the candidate at least twice over the last few months and have not received a response.
My name is James Wilson and I am looking to get a better idea of the views of the Conservative Party leadership candidates so I may cast an informed vote. Could I get your views on the following?
1. What are your views on the monarchy?
2. What are your views on intellectual property?
3. What are your views on Basic Income/Mincome?
4. Do you support Canada joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my message.
Best Regards,
[Named Redacted]"

As you may notice I actually polled Mr. O'Toole on various
areas of policy. This format is consistent across all of the
candidates I contacted. On February 27th I received the
following reply:

"Hi [Named Redacted]. Sorry for the delay in response. I appreciate you sending me a message!
While I don't have these detailed policy positions right now, I am working on it. At
this time I am putting forward a number of policy papers on how I would govern
Canada. I am reaching out to hear what Conservatives are thinking because I am
running a campaign of ideas and innovation that reflects where our country is
going and what we need to do to succeed. I intend to release my policy proposals in
the near future. These are intended to provoke discussion amongst members. They
will not be top-down policies, nor will there be two dozen of them. They will
represent key priorities that I want all Conservatives to consider as we build the
winning team for the next election. So far I have created policies for immigration,
jobs, farming, firearms and Veterans which you can read about on my website
www.erinotoole.ca If you would like to join the mission please send an email to
volunteer@erinotoole.ca. I would love to have you on my team for CPC leadership
and our victory in 2019!"

At the time I interpreted this reply
as a brush-off and a failure to
answer the questions I had asked.
However, in hindsight 'refusal' was
too strong of a word to have used. I
will concede this was a poor word
choice and I would like to apologize
to Mr. O'Toole for the mis-
characterization of his stance, no matter how unintentional. I
would also like to apologize to the Monarchist League of
Canada as I inadvertently put them in a difficult situation.

If any good came out of this situation it is that Mr. O'Toole
has released a statement to the League outlining his views on
the monarchy:

"I was very proud to have received The Queen's Commission in the Canadian
Armed Forces, and it hangs in my office. I have worked indirectly with the Royal
Family on the True Patriot Love Foundation - a military charity I co-founded - and
for which I received Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee medal. The photo book of
Prince Harry's visit to Canada House for this charity sits on the coffee table in my
Hill office. And it was this organization that successfully bid for Canada to host this
year's Invictus Games, led by Prince Harry. There is nobody in the race who has
more of a direct association with the monarchy, nor, I believe, is there anyone in
the race who has been more publicly supportive of the monarchy than I. One of my
most widely reported policies during this race is all about working closer with our
Commonwealth allies. I have raised the monarchy and its strengths in my many
discussions about the CANZUK policy, which would create a trade and security
pact for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The above is a snapshot to
give you a flavour of my track record and consistent and steadfast support for the
monarchy as a foundational element of our parliamentary democracy and a
positive force in our society."

I have added a note to the original post directing readers here
as well as updated the Five Crown Scoreboard to reflect new
information I have learned. I will also be reviewing the
processes I use in contacting public figures to see if there is
room for improvement.

Apologetically Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Conservative Leadership Candidates and the Monarchy: Erin O'Toole

3/3/2017

UPDATE: Due to questions raised about
some of the points below and additional
information being received from Mr.
O'Toole regarding the monarchy the
information below is out-of-date. It is kept
for historical reasons. Updated Article

Erin O'Toole has taken the time to reply to
my email. Unfortunately, I wish his reply
had been better. Long story short Mr.
O'Toole has refused to answer my question
regarding the monarchy. Mr. O'Toole is not the first
candidate to refuse to answer my question regarding the
monarchy but his refusal is the most disappointing. Anyways,
lets see if Mr. O'Toole has had anything to say about
monarchy in other contexts.

And in fact Mr. O'Toole has mentioned the monarchy and
various members of the Royal Family on different occasions.
These quotes don't necessarily fall under the category of him
having 'defended' the monarchy, but they do represent a
decent knowledge of it and willingness to discuss it and how
it relates to Canada. Which makes it hard to pick a quote that
exemplifies all of them. The one I've chosen is based mostly
on its uniqueness:

"Mr. Speaker, troubling reports out of the United Kingdom indicate that a Canadian
terror suspect is being pursued with respect to possible risks to the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge travelling in India. I ask that the Minister of Public
Safety update the House and confirm that CSIS and all of our security agencies are
providing co-operation in this international investigation."

And given that Mr. O'Toole has only held office since 2012 the
number of references is encouraging even if they are fairly
minor. Finally there is the fact that Mr. O'Toole supports
CANZUK. While the idea has obvious economic benefits it is
also pretty upfront about how important it holds our shared
monarchy to be. Overall, Erin O'Toole is an interesting
candidate. I just wish he'd give answers to questions asked.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Conservative Party Leadership Race: Views on the Monarchy

9/16/2016

For a while now I have been emailing the various leadership
candidates for the Conservative Party of Canada to ascertain
their views on the monarchy. I have already posted individual
articles on some of the candidates. This post is to function as
a sort of index and supplement to the other articles. Now,
without further delay let us take a good look at what the tory
leadership candidates think about the Canadian monarchy.

The Emailed Question & Responses

The question posed to each candidate was simple:
"What are your views on the monarchy?"

Below are links to each candidate's reply and a short look at
any previous comments they have made in regards to the
monarchy. Names are in order of when they entered the race.

Kellie Leitch
Maxime Bernier
Michael Chong
Tony Clement (Withdrew From Race)
Deepak Obhrai
Brad Trost
Pierre Lemieux
Adrienne Snow (Withdrew From Race)
Dan Lindsay (Withdrew From Race)
Andrew Scheer
Chris Alexander
Erin O'Toole
Rick Peterson
Andrew Saxton
Steven Blaney
Lisa Raitt
Kevin O'Leary

Five Crown Scoreboard

Here I have ranked the candidates support for the monarchy.
Keep in mind this is only my assessment and your mileage
may vary. Also, note that changes may occur as the campaign goes on. The score is out of five crowns with each candidate
receiving one crown for stating support for the monarchy in
their reply, one crown for having defended the monarchy in
Parliament, two crowns for outlining how they would improve
the monarchy's role in the future, and one crown for having
spoken in support of the monarchy outside of Parliament.

Maxime Bernier

Mr. Bernier's score suffered mostly
due to how little he has said publicly
about the monarchy. While I don't
think he supports republicanism I
can't say more beyond that.

Score:

Tony Clement

Mr. Clement gave a better reply to my
email but like Mr. Bernier has had
little to say about the monarchy since
being elected.

Score:

Michael Chong

Mr. Chong was both supportive of the
monarchy in his reply and has spoken
favourably about it in Parliament.

Score:

Kellie Leitch

Ms. Leitch's response is on par with
that of Tony Clement but I have more
doubts about her support for the
Crown.

Score:

Chris Alexander

A good chunk of Mr. Alexander's
score comes from his support of a
Canadian coronation ceremony. His
lack of time in Parliament indirectly
lowered his score though.

Score:

Pierre Lemieux

Like several other candidates Mr.
Lemieux has had little to say about
the monarchy outside of his reply to
me.

Score:

Deepak Obhrai

Mr. Obhrai has expressed support for
the monarchy both in his reply and in
Parliament. Has grown to appreciate
the monarchy over time.

Score:

Andrew Saxton

As with several other candidates Mr.
Saxton stated his support for the
monarchy in his reply but has had
little else to say on the issue.

Score:

Rick Peterson

Mr. Peterson's score partly reflects
how little time he has had in public
life.

Score:

Brad Trost

Mr. Trost's reply had some meat to it
but was otherwise typical of the
replies received so far.

Score:

Lisa Raitt

Mrs. Raitt's has replied stating her
support for the monarchy.

Score:

Erin O'Toole

Mr. O'Toole has stated strong support
for the monarchy both in his
statement and in public.

Score:

Andrew Scheer

Mr. Scheer gave a very good reply and
has stated a desire to better educate
Canadians on the role of the
monarchy.

Score:

Loyal Quotes

"The Queen is our head of state. The Governor General is her
representative here and should remain as such. A sort of
republicanism by stealth has been orchestrated over the last
number of years in this country. We need to be very careful
about not going down that path."
~Michael Chong, 2005

"I was very proud to have received The Queen's Commission
in the Canadian Armed Forces, and it hangs in my office. I
have worked indirectly with the Royal Family on the True
Patriot Love Foundation - a military charity I co-founded -
and for which I received Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee
medal. The photo book of Prince Harry's visit to Canada
House for this charity sits on the coffee table in my Hill
office. And it was this organization that successfully bid for
Canada to host this year's Invictus Games, led by Prince
Harry.
There is nobody in the race who has more of a direct
association with the monarchy, nor, I believe, is there
anyone in the race who has been more publicly supportive of
the monarchy than I. One of my most widely reported
policies during this race is all about working closer with our
Commonwealth allies. I have raised the monarchy and its
strengths in my many discussions about the CANZUK policy,
which would create a trade and security pact for Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
The above is a snapshot to give you a flavour of my track
record and consistent and steadfast support for the
monarchy as a foundational element of our parliamentary
democracy and a positive force in our society."
~Erin O'Toole, 2017

_______________________________________

I would like to thank all of the candidates for getting back to
me. While I might disagree at times with the replies I receive
it is at least good to know that politicians still take the time
to reply to ordinary Canadians.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour

Conservative Leadership Candidates and the Monarchy: Erin O'Toole

Candidate Erin O'Toole and the Monarchy Revisited

Conservative Leadership Candidates and the Monarchy: Erin O'Toole

Conservative Party Leadership Race: Views on the Monarchy

The Emailed Question & Responses

Five Crown Scoreboard

Loyal Quotes

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