In the first signs of support cracking at the local level, the Foothills Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) Electoral District Association on January 22nd passed a resolution calling on the CPC to call a leadership review for June 15th, 2022.
The motion reads:
The Foothills EDA Board hereby requests the following of National Council and the Party Leadership:
To ensure a united and strong Conservative Party of Canada in preparation for an imminent election, a leadership review be held by June 15, 2022. And:
The EDA will communicate this motion to National Council, our Member of Parliament and other EDAs across Canada
This is the second western entity to call for a review of O'Toole's leadership. Late in 2021 Saskatchewan Senator Denis Batter's launched a petition to accelerate the leadership review process.
The motions comes days prior to a caucus gathering for the CPC, where the party and leader will receive a post-mortem written by former Edmonton-Centre MP James Cumming.
That report is expected to outline where the party went wrong in the 2021 election which saw the party loose support in urban centres including, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and the Greater Toronto Area.
John Barlow is the current MP for Foothills. O'Toole names Barlow into his Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Agri-Food and Food Security. Barlow endorsed Peter McKay over O'Toole during the last leadership election.