Denise Batters defends leadership review petition

Denise Batters, a Conservative senator from Saskatchewan, is standing behind her petition to move up the leadership review for Erin O’Toole.

Batters announced the review Monday with a video and a website. Speaking with Gormley on Tuesday morning, Batters said there were already 1,800 signatures.

The senator said that since O’Toole became leader in August of 2020, and during the recent federal election campaign, he has reversed party policies without consultation.

“I think it’s critical that our party members have the opportunity soon to state whether they still support Mr. O’Toole as leader and his dramatic new policy direction because I’m very concerned that Mr. O’Toole’s actions in forcing the party in a direction against the will of the members will split this party apart again in two or more parts,” said Batters.

If the party is split, Batters feels it will guarantee more Liberal wins and she said the country can’t afford that.

When asked whether she is dividing the party with this petition, Batters said she hopes not — she just wants party members to have a voice.

“It’s actually our core Conservative principles that bind together all the smaller groups of Conservatives that make up our movement. And because Erin O’Toole has abandoned those principles in the pursuit of power, I think it’s so important that members have a say on this,” said Batters.

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

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

“I’m simply saying that our members deserve to have a say within the next six months,” explained Batters.

According to Batters, there are “many” within the Conservative caucus who share her concerns, though she didn’t put a number on how many support her petition.

“I door-knocked all three Regina ridings in the last campaign and what I heard on the doorsteps was what many of my colleagues from across the country heard in different parts of the country: People wanted to vote Conservative but voters weren’t happy with Erin O’Toole, they were frustrated with his reversals on the policies and they did not trust him,” Batters said.

Batters said the majority of the party membership could very well disagree with her, but she believes the review should happen sooner rather than later to put it to rest.