O’Toole kicks Batters out of Conservative caucus

Just one day after launching a petition calling for a leadership review, Denise Batters has been kicked out of the Conservative caucus.

The Saskatchewan senator posted a video on social media Monday outlining the reasons why she started the petition seeking a review of the leadership of Erin O’Toole.

Late Tuesday afternoon, O’Toole released a statement saying Batters had been removed from the party caucus.

“As the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, I will not tolerate an individual discrediting and showing a clear lack of respect towards the efforts of the entire Conservative caucus, who are holding the corrupt and disastrous Trudeau government to account,” O’Toole wrote.

“Just eight weeks ago, Canadians elected Conservatives to hold Justin Trudeau accountable for his economic mismanagement, and fight the cost of living crisis, skyrocketing inflation and supply chain issues that are crippling businesses. That is our focus as a team.”

Batters told Gormley on Tuesday morning the petition already had 1,800 signatures.

Conservative Party president Robert Batherson wrote to Batters about the petition, saying that the process can’t be used to launch a leadership review and that the process to select a leader can only be triggered if a leader dies, retires or resigns.

Batters disagreed, saying she just wants to move up the review process that would happen in 2023 anyway.

In her video, Batters said O’Toole has “watered down” and occasionally reversed the party’s policy positions without input from caucus members, and then ran a campaign in the 2021 federal election that she said was “indistinguishable” from that of the Liberals.

“This campaign was not lost because of Mr. O’Toole’s mistakes or inexperience,” Batters said. “It was lost because of what Canadian voters perceive as his character flaw — that he is not trustworthy. You can’t come back from that.”

Batters responded to her ouster with another tweet, saying she wouldn’t “be silenced by a leader so weak that he fired me VIA VOICEMAIL.”

Tonight, Erin O'Toole tried to silence me for giving our #CPC members a voice.
I will not be silenced by a leader so weak that he fired me VIA VOICEMAIL.
Most importantly, he cannot suppress the will of our Conservative Party members!
Sign the petition: https://t.co/HOHfNM2HXK

— Sen. Denise Batters (@denisebatters) November 17, 2021