Tory MP irate over ‘leak’ of meeting
• It was Conservative MP Scott Reid who put forward the motion asking MP Derek Sloan to retract his attack on Dr. Theresa Tam, but now Reid says he’s most furious about the leak to the media about the meeting — and suggested a leadership campaign could be behind it.
“Nobody suffers from the illusion that I am a Sloan supporter,” Reid said in a series of Twitter posts. “After all, it was (purportedly) my motion, demanding the retraction of his rhetoric that was leaked. But whether we like the form of his retraction or not, he has retracted. The bigger issue is the leak itself.”
Political parties consider their caucus meetings to be confidential to allow for full discussion, though leaks to media are not uncommon.
Reid said there are two possibilities about the leak, given only MPS were at the meeting: “1. An MP leaked directly to media; 2. An MP told a Leadership Campaign team, which decided that a leak could help their guy win, and therefore contacted media.”
He then said that “forcing Sloan out of Caucus means he’s out of the leadership race,” though that’s not automatically true. It’s up to the leadership election organizing committee to decide whether Sloan should be disqualified.
“But since he won’t win anyway, why bother?” Reid went on. “Answer: A finalist who can’t capture the 2nd- ballot support of Sloan voters benefits if there are no 1st-ballot Sloan votes.”
Reid was referring to the ranked ballot, which allows voters to rank candidates by choice. Each round, until someone gets 50 per cent of the vote, the lowest candidate is eliminated and those votes go to the next choice on the ballot.
“Someone wants to get rid of him,” Reid said. “Thus, even if we don’t know who leaked, we do know why, and for whose benefit... If an MP leaked this, then that MP — not Derek Sloan — should be the one facing expulsion. And if a leadership candidate authorized his team to make the leak, then he should be reconsidering whether he is fit to lead the party.”
Multiple sources have confirmed to the National Post that it was Reid who put forward the motion passed at Tuesday’s meeting of the
Conservatives’ Ontario caucus. The motion called on Sloan to retract an attack he made on Dr. Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, by asking whether she was working for Canada or China. Sloan has slammed Tam for being too supportive of the World Health Organization, which he says is “unduly influenced” by China.
Dr. Tam was born in Hong Kong, and many Conservative MPS publicly condemned Sloan’s comment for appearing to question Dr. Tam’s loyalty to Canada. However, Conservative sources say there is a mix of feelings within caucus, and only some MPS are of the mind that Sloan should be booted from caucus; others feel that a reprimand such as Reid’s motion is enough. Booting Sloan from the party would take a majority vote from the national caucus, which meets Friday, and it’s not clear there would be enough support for that.
In a statement Wednesday evening, Sloan said his comment was “rhetorical,” and that he did not intend to question Dr. Tam’s loyalty. However, Sloan did not apologize for his comment or specifically say he’s retracting it.
Sloan and Reid have neighbouring ridings in Eastern Ontario, but that’s where the similarities end.
Sloan was elected as an MP just six months ago and entered the leadership race with almost no profile, but has received heavy backing from social conservative networks. He’s one of four candidates who qualified for the final ballot, along with Peter Mackay, MP Erin O’toole and Leslyn Lewis.
Reid is one of the longest- serving Conservatives and has a reputation for being fiercely independent, clashing with party brass when he believes the rights of MPS are being obstructed. Reid is also known to be hostile to Mackay’s candidacy.
Mackay and O’toole are the front-runners in the race. O’toole, the MP for Durham, was part of the Ontario caucus meeting and two sources have said O’toole was the only person aside from Sloan to vote against the motion demanding the retraction.
Reid was most likely referring to Mackay as the finalist wanting Sloan out of the race, as many Conservatives feel O’toole is most likely to benefit from down- ballot support from social conservatives, and O’toole has positioned himself to get it.
Both the Mackay and O’toole campaigns declined to comment, and Reid did not respond to an interview request.
The leadership race, put on pause for most of April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is fully underway again.
The cutoff for membership sales is May 15. And the vote will be conducted by mail-in ballots. The committee has set an Aug. 21 deadline to conclude the race.