That Derek Sloan was booted out of the Conservative Party wasn’t terribly surprising.
Back in August this very column said at times during Sloan’s CPC leadership campaign he seemed just as likely to get kicked out of the party than he did to finish the race still on the ballot. In the end it was the method in which Sloan was turfed from the party that proved to be most unexpected and quite honestly, unfair. At least, the reason that was given publicly.
Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole cited a $131 donation from a known white nationalist to Sloan’s campaign as the ‘last straw’. For his part Sloan has argued he has no control over who donates to his campaign and had no idea who Frederick P. Fromm was prior to last week. If a donation from a less than reputable individual is enough to get an MP removed from a party, it’s going to open up a gigantic can of worms and likely exposes several other MPs up to scrutiny. Quite frankly it’s not reasonable to expect politicians to run a background check on every donor. Nor is it reasonable to say a politician shares the beliefs of every single person who donates to their party or would let them influence their policies-especially one who only shells out dollars in the triple digits.
That’s not to say O’Toole’s decision to eject Sloan was completely unfounded either. On more than one occasion Sloan has gone off-script of the party, forcing O’Toole to have to walk a tight rope between defending his MP while also trying to grow the party’s base.
Sloan has never been the perfect representative. This column has also been used to voice disagreement with Sloan’s stance on trying to keep conversion therapy legal. No politician in 2021 should advocate keeping conversion therapy legal. Whether that’s enough to have an MP removed from a party is debatable. Though it wasn’t a stance Sloan spoke of about much, if at all, prior to the last election and a lot more was revealed about his social conservative views during his leadership bid. Those who disagreed with his stance would have their chance to make it known when the next federal election rolled around.
By kicking Sloan out of the party, O’Toole appears to be willing to let some support potentially bleed the likes of the People’s Party of Canada while hoping to recoup those losses and then some by trying to appeal to undecided voters closer to the centre.
Much speculation has been made as to what took place behind closed doors ahead of the publication of the article that ultimately ended Sloan’s tenure within the caucus. The timing of it all does raise some questions. After all, the story broke the day after O’Toole published a statement attempting to distance the party from the far right.
Set up or not, the end result is the constituents of Hastings-Lennox and Addington are now represented by an independent. While Sloan says he will continue to bring the riding’s issues to the federal level, he’ll now do so without the support and resources of a major political party behind him.
-Adam Prudhomme