O'Toole seeks to boot Ontario MP Sloan
Former leadership rival says campaign staff did not know donation was from white supremacist
OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole says he wants Ontario MP Derek Sloan kicked out of the party caucus over a donation to his leadership campaign from a white supremacist.
O'Toole says his former leadership rival's accepting the contribution is “far worse than a gross error of judgment or failure of due diligence.”
It's up to Conservative MPs whether to eject Sloan from their number, but O'Toole says he'll use his power as party leader to keep the firstterm Hastings—Lennox and Addington MP from running again as a Tory in the next election.
Sloan says his leadership team processed the $131 donation from Paul Fromm without recognizing his name amid 13,000 other donors.
“At no time was I ever aware of this donation. Paul Fromm is a notorious name to some, but not to everyone, and clearly this name, mixed as it was in the midst of thousands of other donations, did not ring any bells to my team,” said Sloan in a tweet.
Fromm has been a fixture in right-wing politics for decades, including participating in events with the neo-Nazi Heritage Front.
Sloan says when he learned about the donation Monday afternoon, he contacted the Conservative party and asked that Fromm's money be returned.
O'Toole released a statement on Sunday that pushed back against attempts to link his party to Trump-style politics, saying there is “no place for the far right” in the Tories while accusing the Liberals of divisive dirty tricks.
In the statement, O'Toole asserted his own views on such issues as abortion, gay rights and reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada while insisting that his party is not beholden to right-wing extremists and hatemongers.
“The Conservatives are a moderate, pragmatic, mainstream party — as old as Confederation — that sits squarely in the centre of Canadian politics,” O'Toole said.
“My singular focus is to get Canada's economy back on track as quickly as possible to create jobs and secure a strong future for all Canadians. There is no place for the far right in our party.”
The unusual statement follows the riot on Capitol Hill, which U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of inciting and which has been held up as proof of the dangers posed by right-wing extremists to democracy.
A Liberal party fundraising letter sent to members last week accused the Conservatives under O'Toole of “continuing a worrisome pattern of divisive politics and catering to the extreme right.”
It cited the motto used by O'Toole's leadership campaign: “Take back Canada.”
It also referenced a photo of Conservative deputy leader Candice Bergen wearing a hat with Trump's slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and a since-deleted Tory website alleging the Liberals want to rig the next election.