Lethbridge MP Rachael Harder (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge MP excited for new federal Conservative leader O’Toole

Aug 24, 2020 | 12:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It was a long night, but the federal Conservatives have their new leader.

Erin O’Toole will lead the party, following in the footsteps of Andrew Scheer.

READ MORE: Erin O’Toole takes federal Conservatives leadership on 3^rd ballot

Lethbridge’s Member of Parliament, Rachael Harder, is very happy with O’Toole’s victory. LNN spoke with Harder to get her thoughts on what O’Toole will bring to the table for Canadians.

“Erin O’Toole has proven himself to be a leader who genuinely cares for our country and who will lead caucus, the party and our nation extremely well going forward,” she said.

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When asked if she believes O’Toole will implement any changes or shifts to how the federal party operates, she said “solid leadership” has a number of components to it.

“One is being able to put forward a captivating vision for our country and then the second is being able to have a strategy in place in regard to how that vision is going to be fulfilled,” she remarked.

“The third is being able to build a team that can go and make that vision a reality – fulfill the strategy that’s been put forward. I think Erin is going to shift some things around and really capitalize on peoples’ talents and abilities within caucus in order to build a very strong team and to be able to move us forward in a really healthy and beneficial way for the sake of our country.”

HELPING ALBERTA

Harder said over the past few years, she believes investment has been driven out of the country by the Trudeau Liberal government.

“People are not wanting to set up shop here, business are really struggling,” she said.

“One of the things that Erin O’Toole is going to do really well is he’s going to be able to provide investors with the confidence that they need to bring their money back into Canada to keep small businesses strong, to celebrate those entrepreneurs that are within our country as a whole.”

She touched on how O’Toole’s vision will help Alberta.

“In particular, here in the province of Alberta, we’re the type of people who get it done. We work hard, we have an entrepreneurial spirit, we want to be innovative, creative [and] build businesses from the ground up,” she said.

“I think Erin O’Toole is going to put some policies in place that are really going to facilitate that and so, it’s going to strengthen our economy as a province and help us move forward in a positive direction.”

TRANSPARENCY

Amid the WE Charity scandal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been called out for a lack of transparency with Canadians.

Harder said O’Toole will keep communication strong with citizens and has proven himself to be someone who is “very transparent, very open” and “very honest”.

“My expectation is that he will continue to be transparent, he will continue to be honest, he will continue to be open with Canadians and I think the Canadian public can anticipate really great things from him.”

O’Toole won the position as leader of the party on the third ballot, earning 57.2 percent of votes compared to second-place finisher Peter MacKay’s 42 percent.