O’Toole’s been on path to top for a long time
OTTAWA — Erin O’Toole made sure when he went to law school, he dressed for it.
While classmates at Dalhousie University sported jeans and T-shirts, one recalled O’Toole stood out for wearing slacks and a button-down shirt.
“There were a few guys like Erin, who kind of had that focused look in their eye,” said Toronto lawyer Ted Frankel.
O’Toole, 48, has swapped uniforms several times in his life, from military to law and finally to politics.
Those close to the Conservative leader say a sense of determination continues to define him, as he faces the pressure of defeating Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau after a tenure eclipsed by the COVID-19 pandemic and attempts to modernize the party, an area where some supporters felt his performance to be lacklustre.
Over the past year, O’Toole has tried introducing himself to Canadians by asking them to see him as a "middle-class kid."
Born in 1973 in Montreal, his family later moved to Bowmanville, Ont., where his father worked at General Motors.
He suffered loss at nine when his mother, a teacher, died from breast cancer. After his father remarried, he grew up the oldest in a blended family of five kids, playing sports and sitting on his high school’s student council and graduating with an A average.
And while he may not have been a prime minister's son, he was nevertheless the son of a politician.
John O’Toole was elected in 1995 as the Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Durham, where he served for nearly 20 years.
O’Toole credits his dad for inspiring him to pursue public service, which for him meant entering the military at 18.
Michael Roach was among those who lived with him in Chilliwack in the summer of 1991, where he says O’Toole’s positivity meant he was often the one to break the ice during the non-stop stress of classes, exercises and drills.
“After the people would come in our room and inspect it and everyone's standing at attention, sweating as they’re being yelled at, eventually they just leave the room — almost inevitably Erin would crack a smile or laugh or something and you couldn't help but do it yourself," he remembered.
O’Toole went on to attend the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont., where he met Derron Bain, who also studied economics and political science.
Bain recalls O’Toole being a serious student.
To understand O’Toole, his longtime friend says, one simply needs to look at the military ethos they were taught.
While hosting some students at his home, professor Lubomyr Luciuk was struck by how cadet O’Toole carried himself.
“I was impressed by this young man who came to my home and was part of a group and never sort of tried to push himself above the rest.”
After graduating in 1995, O’Toole was commissioned into the Air Force as an officer.
Following a post to Trenton and then at 17 Wing in Winnipeg, he was sent to 12 Wing in Shearwater, N.S., where he flew on a Sea King helicopter as a tactical navigator.
O’Toole's knack for politics was noticed in the summer of 1999 while volunteering on the campaign for Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader John Hamm.
“That was my ‘aha’ moment," remembers Jamie Baillie, who volunteered with O’Toole, and later led the province's Progressive Conservatives himself.
“He was just so affable and persuasive on the doorsteps. People really connected with him.”
O’Toole then went to law school. To do that, he retired from regular military service and joined the reserves.
At 26, O’Toole married Rebecca, who hailed from outside Halifax.
They eventually left the East Coast for Toronto, where O’Toole spent the next decade building a corporate legal career on Bay Street . The couple started a family, first with their daughter Mollie, named after O’Toole’s mother, followed by a son, Jack.
His entry into politics seemed like a "natural progression," says friend Ihor Kozak.
O’Toole won a federal byelection in 2012. He was tapped to become parliamentary secretary to Ed Fast, trade minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
O’Toole, then took over as veterans affairs minister.
Once the Conservatives lost power in 2015 election, he made a play for the leadership.
“When he went into politics, I think nobody had any doubt that Erin is going to reach for the stars and go for the top,” said Kozak.
He lost in 2017 to Andrew Scheer, but secured the party's top spot last August by running as the “true blue” candidate, courting support from the party’s social conservative ranks to mark him as their alternate choice in the ranked-ballot system.
Campaign co-chair Walied Soliman rejects criticism O’Toole ran as someone he wasn't.
"I would say he's a little bit old school at a time when Canada really needs some old school.”