Erin Michael O’Toole PC CD MP was born on January 22, 1973 (age 49 years) in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Mollie (née Hall) and John O’Toole, who served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Durham in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario between 1995 and 2014. His father is of Irish descent, and his mother was born in London, England, and came to Canada after World War II. Following his mother’s demise when he was nine years old, his family shifted to Port Perry, Ontario, where he visited an elementary school. O’Toole and his family later moved to Bowmanville, Ontario, where he graduated from Bowmanville High School. Height 1.75m

Erin O’Toole is a Canadian politician administering as Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada and the chief of the Conservative Party of Canada since August 24, 2020.

 

In 1991, O’Toole entered the military, recruiting at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated with an honors Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science in 1995. Pursuing his graduation, O’Toole was delegated as an officer in the Canadian Forces Air Command. His initial posting with Air Command appeared in Trenton, Ontario, where he was in search and rescue missions. O’Toole also devoured time at 17 Wing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he achieved his training as an air navigator.

Long Time Gal 

Erin O’Toole is engaged to his longtime gal Rebecca. He met his wife in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1998, and they wedded in 2000. He has a daughter and a son. O’Toole is a Catholic. He founded True Patriot Love, nonprofit benefiting veterans, members of the military, and their homes. In September 2020, O’Toole was assessed positive for COVID‑19, since a worker in his office tested positive. His wife also later tested positive for COVID-19, after originally testing negative. They were in self-isolation until September 30, at which point O’Toole returned to Parliament.

 

Erin O’Toole Net Worth #Riches

 Erin O’Toole’s fortune is valued at around $7 million as of 2022. His income is around $205,000. He is one of the significant politicians in Canada. However, in 2012, O’Toole was rewarded the Christopher J. Coulter Young Alumnus Award by Dalhousie University, for his accomplishments and devotion to community service. Also in 2012, O’Toole earned the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal All serving MPs that year were recipients.

 

Introductory Career Stage

In 1997, O’Toole was dispatched to 12 Wing in Shearwater, Nova Scotia. While fulfilling this post, O’Toole flew as a tactical navigator on a CH-124 (Sea King) helicopter with 423 Squadron, executed maritime surveillance, and operated search and rescue and naval help operations. While serving at 12 Wing, O’Toole was endorsed to the status of captain and was bestowed the Sikorsky Helicopter Rescue Award for retrieving an injured fisherman at sea.

 

In 2000, O’Toole finalized his active service in the military. He transferred to the reserves, operating as a training officer running flight simulators, while he followed a law degree. He obtained the Canadian Forces Decoration for 12 years of service to Canada.

Education And Legal Career

O’Toole passed from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University with a law degree in 2003. He retreated to Ontario where he articled and later evolved as a lawyer with Stikeman Elliott, a business law firm in Toronto. During this time, O’Toole largely practiced in the areas of product liability, bankruptcy, competition, and common commercial law. Between 2006 and 2011, O’Toole served as Canadian in-house counsel for Procter & Gamble.

 

He performed as corporate counsel for Gillette, delivered commercial and regulatory law guidance, was counsel on problems associated with legislation, and examined counterfeiting operations. In 2011, O’Toole entered the law firm, Heenan Blaikie. While at Heenan Blaikie, O’Toole was a registered lobbyist for Facebook, Inc.

Political Career

In May 2012, O’Toole announced his plans to run as the Conservative candidate in the by-election for Durham, following Bev Oda’s resignation, winning the seat on November 26, 2012. After O’Toole spent a few months as a backbencher in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named him the parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, Ed Fast, in September 2013.

 

In 2014, O’Toole partnered with then-senator Roméo Dallaire to host the first Samuel Sharpe Memorial Breakfast, in honor of former soldier and MP Samuel Simpson Sharpe. Sharpe committed suicide in 1918 following his return home from World War I. O’Toole and Dallaire started the memorial breakfast to bring issues of veterans’ mental health to the forefront and to improve access to treatment and resources for soldiers suffering from operational stress injuries. In May 2018, O’Toole introduced a motion to install a plaque commemorating Sharpe on Parliament Hill, which passed unanimously.

 

On January 5, 2015, Harper appointed O’Toole as minister of veterans affairs, replacing Julian Fantino. O’Toole prioritized repairing relations with veterans and addressing the complaints Canadian veterans had with Fantino. In the lawsuit, filed before O’Toole was named minister, the Canadian soldiers argued that the 2006 overhaul of veteran benefits was discriminatory.

 

In the 2015 election, O’Toole was re-elected as MP for Durham receiving 45 percent of the vote, followed by Liberal candidate Corinna Traill with 36 percent.

 

Conservative Leadership Campaign

Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative party leader after the Liberals won a majority in the 2015 federal election. O’Toole announced that he would seek the interim leadership of the Conservative Party. Rona Ambrose defeated him but named O’Toole the Official Opposition critic for public safety.

 

On October 14, 2016, O’Toole announced his nomination as a candidate in the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. O’Toole ran a positive campaign and avoided personally attacking other candidates during the campaign, arguing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not own optimism. He received endorsements from 31 MPs, 12 former MPs, 17 provincial politicians, and CANZUK International. O’Toole finished in third place, behind Maxime Bernier and the eventual winner Andrew Scheer.

The Leadership Of The Conservative Party

Immediately as he became leader, O’Toole told that accelerating a plunge election was not his priority, and he selected to focus on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and discovering jobs for the unemployed instead. He reaffirmed his stance in December 2020, asserting that the pandemic must be over before an election is called. Despite this, he has said the Conservative Party is prepared for another election if one was called. On September 2, 2020, he declared Candice Bergen would serve as his deputy. O’Toole disclosed his Shadow Cabinet the following week, with maximum functions changing from the previous Scheer-led one.

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Toole condemned the Trudeau government for not ratifying immediate and at-home testing alternatives, asserting that the economy would be uncertain if it or a vaccine were elusive. O’Toole has applauded Alberta’s pandemic response for allowing testing at pharmacies and subsisting less restrictive than different provinces. When the distribution of a vaccine was near, he criticized the government as incapable of delivering vaccine doses as promptly as other countries like the US and the UK. He called for more clarity respecting the vaccine rollout plan and stated that Canada only focused on pre-ordering vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna after a partnership with a Chinese company failed.

 

During his leadership, O’Toole began trying to attract working-class people to the Conservative Party, noting his experience of watching auto workers lose their jobs in his hometown of Bowmanville, and his support for unions. Despite his support for unions, union leaders were skeptical given his previous parliamentary voting record and his pre-2015 free trade-related work. O’Toole also softened his rhetoric, presenting himself as moderate to counter accusations from opponents that he was trying to market to the far-right.

The Big 2021 Election

Following the start of the 2021 election campaign, O’Toole released a platform with the slogans “Secure the Future” in English and “Agir Pour L’Avenir” (English translation: Act for the Future) in French. The opening paragraphs of the 160-page document include a statement that “It’s time for Conservatives to take inequality seriously” The Conservatives have described their platform as focusing on the economy, jobs, and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Political Positions

O’Toole has been described as tending to be one of the more moderate members of his party. He supports a more moderate Conservative Party and has denounced the far-right, stating that they do not belong in his party.

 

Domestic Policy: Uplifting The Poor

O’Toole has stated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government should only spend what is necessary to help Canadians and balance the budget gradually over the next decade. O’Toole is against a national childcare program, saying that he prefers giving families more childcare options rather than one federal one. In his 2021 platform, he proposed to replace the current child care funding with tax credits for parents. He also opposes a national pharmacy aid program, saying that the government should not replace billions already spent by insurance companies.

 

He also wants to reduce and simplify taxes, arguing that a complicated tax system benefits the wealthy, who can afford to find loopholes.. O’Toole supports a full review of government spending and a program in which all new spending must be accompanied by an equivalent reduction in spending elsewhere. He has called for an incentive to reduce employment insurance premiums that small and medium-sized businesses pay for new employees.

The Housing Crisis

 

To tackle Canada’s housing crisis, O’Toole proposes to create one million new homes within three years, including converting at least 15 percent of federal buildings into housing space. He also supports banning foreign investors from buying Canadian homes for at least two years.

 

A “Canadian values” test, like the one proposed by Kellie Leitch, is not supported by O’Toole. During the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Toole has proposed increased immigration through family reunification to make up for a decreased number of economic immigrants.

 

During the 2020 leadership election, O’Toole made a platform appealing specifically towards Quebec nationalists. He stated he is open to giving the province increased powers over immigration and opposing federal intervention to stop the Quebec ban on religious symbols, arguing that the independence of Quebec’s legislature should be protected. He believes that large, federally regulated companies should be required to adhere to Quebec’s Charter of the French Language.

Rights And Policy For Indigenous

Erin O’Toole opposes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and said the Supreme Court of Canada has “set a higher bar on the so-called duty to consult.” After protestors against systemic racism annihilated statues of John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, O’Toole said that it would be “dooming Canada to forget its history” and that he preferred adding plaques to monuments describing a “more balanced look” of Canada’s history instead of tearing them down. He had previously opposed the removal of a statue of Macdonald from Victoria’s City Hall.

 

In November 2020, O’Toole made a speech to Ryerson Conservatives defending the university’s namesake Egerton Ryerson where he said the Canadian Indian residential school system was “created to provide education”. In December 2020 he retracted his comments and stated Indigenous reconciliation is a priority for him.

Financial Policy And Covid

During the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Toole released a post-pandemic recovery plan. He promised to launch a royal commission on the issue within 100 days of taking office and said the “big government” strategy failed Canadians. He has proposed converting the existing child care expense deduction to a refundable tax credit. 

 

O’Toole supported extending Employment Insurance for workers after the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) ran out in summer 2021. O’Toole believes the CERB should have been used more effectively by the government and focused on sectors hit hardest by the pandemic. He proposes expanding the emergency loan program for businesses and temporarily amending bankruptcy laws to make company restructuring easier.

 

O’Toole supports unions, calling them “an essential part of the balance between what was good for business and what was good for employees”. He believes a lack of unions gives too much power to corporate elites, who he has said would be “too happy to outsource jobs abroad”.

 

After an anti-pipeline movement sparked rail blockades across Canada, O’Toole promised to make it a specific criminal offense to block them as well as entrances to businesses, airports, and seaports, though some opponents believe it unfairly targets them. He also plans on introducing a law to ensure free trade between Canada’s provinces.

 

Environmental Protocol

On carbon pricing, O’Toole intends to replace the current federal carbon tax with a system for consumers. This system would put a surcharge on carbon into a “low carbon savings account”. It’s a Tax-free savings account one can use on purchases to make consumers more environmentally friendly. The surcharge O’Toole proposes is lower than that of the Trudeau government. O’Toole plans to offset that by other measures such as requiring 30 percent of light vehicles to be free of pollutants by 2030.

 

O’Toole’s climate plan proposes to continue taxing the industry. O’Toole plans to raise the tax on the industry as much as Trudeau intends to. He has said climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution. O’Toole has committed to meeting Canada’s Paris Agreement targets. He has also said he will partner with the provinces to do so. He supports net-zero emissions legislation as long as he considers it to “support Canadian industry” 

 

On March 20, 2021, O’Toole attempted to convince members to support a more serious agenda. Aimed at curbing climate change, O’Toole says that he did not want his candidates to be labeled as climate change deniers. Despite this, the party’s base rejected a motion adding “we recognize that climate change is real. The Conservative Party is willing to act”, with 54% of delegates voting against it.

 

Social Problems

The National Post describes O’Toole’s voting record on social issues as socially progressive. He is pro-choice on the matter of abortion, opposing legal restrictions on the practice. O’Toole would hold free votes on bills related to abortion and other social issues. He supports legislation that would allow health care practitioners to decline to offer.

O’Toole supports same-sex marriage. He has pledged to walk in pride parades under the condition that uniformed police officers can as well. He supports ending restrictions on men who have sex with men donating blood and banning conversion therapy.

 

O’Toole initially pledged to repeal all gun law changes made by the Trudeau government. He later stated that the firearms banned in May 2020 would remain banned. However, the current firearms classification system would undergo public review.

 

Before recreational cannabis use was legalized, O’Toole supported its decriminalization. During his 2017 leadership campaign, he said that Trudeau’s plan to legalize it would be impossible to reverse. O’Toole opposes harsh punishments for drug offenses. He supports treating drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal issue. Law enforcement would focus more on traffickers under O’Toole’s proposal and he plans on funding drug rehabilitation. Despite this, he does not support further drug legalization.