As 2021 draws to a close, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole reflected on his quest for a bit of balance between a ‘primary focus on health and a bit of a return to normal,’ as Canada continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic amidst a challenging year of election campaigning and a leadership review.
Speaking to CTV’s Your Morning Thursday, O’Toole touched on hot topics affecting Canadians, including his approach to Quebec’s controversial Bill 21, booster shots and what his travel plans are going into the holiday season in light of Wednesday’s renewed federal public health advice to avoid all non-essential international travel.
Conservative MPs are free to travel internationally over the holidays, while their Liberal and NDP counterparts have been told to stay home.
Here is the full text of O’Toole’s interview with CTV’s Your Morning’s Host Anne-Marie Mediwake.
Note: This transcript has been edited for length and grammar
Mediwake: Both the Liberals and NDP employees have been told they need to stay home for the holidays. Conservative MPs have been told that international travel is okay and it's up to their discretion. Why do you think that's a good idea, given what we know now about the rapid spread of Delta and Omicron?
O’Toole: We've told everyone to look at the advisories, [and] the advisories for vaccinated people that have to make sure that they take precautions, and make sure we use all the tools in what will be a bit of a new normal now with some of the variants over the coming six months, the coming year. But with vaccines, we're in a very different spot than we were last year. Put on top of that with travel, you have double rounds of testing, masking, distancing. So we have to make sure we try and balance off a primary focus on health, but also have a bit of return to normal and people will have to make smart, safe decisions. And that's why we got vaccinated so we can mitigate most of the risks and manage them.
Mediwake: But given what we know when, we look ahead to the U.K., for example, where they're just dealing with 70,000 cases a day, [and] doctors here saying we look to the U.K. as sort of a marker of where we could be going. Doesn't it make sense to now put precautions in case we're not at the new normal yet?
O’Toole: We're looking at all learnings [sic] from the U.K., not just case counts, but also hospitalizations. Your report talked about how they're trying to manage the flow between the U.K. and France, for example, and this is what you have to do by using the vaccine levels. People are only travelling if they're vaccinated. We have the passport systems in place and travelling in terms with airlines. You have in cases double testing both at departure and arrival, and then we have to trace and use distancing. So we have to mitigate and get risks down as much as possible. And some people will choose not to travel, particularly where their destination is. I think that's the balance we have. You know, Lindsay [Deluce] talked about tests being sent to kids at school. That's great. We asked for that over a year and a half ago in most other countries have had those millions of rapid tests. So Canada's been lagging. So let's use all the tools, make smart decisions, but also make sure we try and have a bit of a new normal, which will mean taking advantage of all tools to keep people safe.”
Mediwake: People are talking about holiday plans, as you are in your household, I imagine. Will you be travelling over the holidays?
O’Toole: “We're going to be seeing family, but not leaving Canada, and… we've gotten our vaccinations and videoed that to educate people, our 10 year old Jack has one dose of his vaccine. And even in their schools, my daughter, who's 15, their school have been managing an outbreak. But kids there like her are all vaccinated and masked. This will be a bit of the new normal, and I talked to a lot of leading physicians on how we manage this, and this is radically different than last year because we're fortunate to have the majority of people vaccinated.”
Mediwake: Will you be getting your third dose?
O’Toole: Absolutely. And part of the reason we have to talk about this new normal in managing and using all tools, is we don't want to drive hesitancy back up. We want to say with vaccines, with the boosters, you have more ability to get back as much as possible to life as normal safely. And so let's get people vaccinated. I probably talked about this, as you know, more than most Canadians, because I'm really pushing people to do the right thing and get vaccinated. And I really appreciate [Ontario’s] Premier Ford accelerating the boosters to all adults.
Mediwake: The federal government plan to spend $71 billion on items to include fighting the Omicron variant, antiviral drugs, rapid testing, B.C. flooding recovery efforts. However, the deficit will now drop to $144.5 billion dollars. You say the fiscal update underscores your party's concerns over inflation. Explain that to us.
O’Toole: Well, the reason the deficit, which is still huge, is lower is inflation. People are paying more. They're being taxed more. The government won't acknowledge how much more revenue they're receiving, but the inflation and tax, it's like a form of a new tax that’s very good for the federal government's budget. It's terrible for household budgets, especially seniors and families in the GTA and large, urban centres that are seeing gas up 40 per cent. They're seeing rents up 20 to 30 percent. So we have to fight inflation, get costs down. The other thing I would note the revenues we're seeing from resource revenues because we're seeing a return to better prices. These are sectors of the economy that Mr. Trudeau attacks. They're actually helping us crawl back from the economic challenges of COVID-19.
Mediwake: When it comes to Bill 21, you say you are personally against it, but you respect provincial autonomy. So what do you say to Muslim Canadians who are waiting for you to stand up for religious freedom and stand against discrimination?
O’Toole: Well I’ve raised with [Quebec’s] Premier Legault that I don't like Bill 21, and this is a horrific example of the real impact on people, that teacher is not far from me here on Parliament Hill. And how can we make sure that Quebecers address that and make the decision? This is why I think the public debate is good. I've talked about how when I served in the military, I served alongside Muslims, Jews, Christians, people of all faiths that were putting their service to the country first. Why should that be limited? So let's push to have a talk on this, and that's what we're doing. As a caucus, we would never do anything like this federally, and we have to have a respectful dialogue so that Quebec can address a decision from their provincial assembly.
Mediwake: A petition for early leadership review on yourself was led by former conservative senator Denise Batters, [but] you removed Batters from the National Conservative Caucus because of her criticism on your leadership. You have said that it's what's best for the party after this year's election loss. So what would it take for you to step aside as leader?
O’Toole: We have a lot of momentum, we're having a good session in the Commons fighting for people who are dealing with the impact of rising costs, the cost of living crisis and we're united as a team. We're disappointed with an election loss, but we overcame about a 10 point deficit. We won the popular vote. And if the election was not held in a pandemic - another thing that we shouldn't have done in a pandemic was hold an election - if it wasn't the pandemic, I think talking about the economy, we were doing well. There's already measures for my MPs to hold me to account, as all leaders should, and then we will have a review for party members. But our job is to hold the government to account and propose ideas and solutions for the future because that's what Canadians want a positive opposition.
