Erin O'Toole, question mark
Paul Wells: The Conservative leader can only be sure of having one shot, and people in his party are still not sure what that shot will look like
O'Toole holds a press conference on Parliament Hill on March 2, 2021 (Sean Kilpatrick/CP)
The good news for Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, as an election looms more or less ominously, is that winners often look like losers before they win. In July 2005 I attended a dinner at the Calgary Stampede with assorted federal Conservatives. “Stephen Harper has earned the right to run one more campaign,” one said mournfully. “We’ll do our best and then pick up the pieces.” Seven months later Harper was Prime Minister.