MP Derek Sloan ejected from CPC caucus for ‘destructive behaviour’

Controversial MP Derek Sloan was kicked out of the Conservative caucus Wednesday, a move party leader Erin O’Toole said was due to a “pattern of destructive behaviour” that had become a distraction.

O’Toole’s acknowledgment that Sloan’s dismissal was not solely over a donation he’d taken from a white nationalist came after hours of heated debate within caucus that saw MPs castigate both Sloan for his record and O’Toole for how he’d handled the issue.

Sloan said he will now sit as an Independent and will continue to fight for conservatives voices.

“No matter how ugly - how undemocratic - the events of the last two days have been, always remember that the Conservative Party of Canada is not the personal property of Erin O’Toole, nor is it the personal property of the cabal that surrounds him,” he wrote.

O’Toole had formally triggered the effort to boot Sloan after revelations Monday that Sloan accepted a donation last year from a known white nationalist, news that broke one day after O’Toole declared there’s no room in his party for far-right extremism or racism.

Sloan claimed he was not aware of the donation previously, and as soon as he learned of it, asked the party to return the money.

But Sloan’s extreme socially conservative views had been a thorn in the party’s side and there had been mounting pressure on O’Toole to kick him out.

During his 15 months as an MP, Sloan has faced accusations he’s racist, drawn condemnation for his views on LGBTQ rights and for his anti-abortion stance, all leading to periodic calls he be tossed from the party’s benches.

“I’ve worked well with many social conservatives in our party over the years. They are welcome in our party, but Derek Sloan’s behaviour is not,” wrote former Conservative cabinet minister John Baird on social media this week.

That O’Toole initially billed the decision to oust him as being based on the donation was a source of frustration for many MPs. Any one of them, in theory, could have accepted and overlooked a similar contribution as vetting the pedigree of each contributor would be impossible.

Several told O’Toole during the meeting he had to come clean about why Sloan was getting the boot, otherwise he was setting too high a bar for them all.

“The Conservative caucus voted to remove Derek Sloan not because of one specific event, but because of a pattern of destructive behaviour involving multiple incidents and disrespect towards the Conservative team for over a year,” O’Toole said in his statement after the meeting,

“These actions have been a consistent distraction from our efforts to grow the party and focus on the work we need to do. Events of the past week were simply the last straw and led to our caucus making the decision it did today.”