Tory leadership hopeful vows to keep party on the right

Conservatives are fighting a “five-front war” against the left, and leadership hopeful Erin O’Toole says the only way for the party to win the battle is by staying true to its right-wing roots.

“We’ve got the Liberals. We’ve got the NDP. We’ve got the Green Party. We’ve got the CBC. We’ve got the Toronto Star. And they’re all telling us what they think we should do,” O’Toole told a crowd of about 40 people Tuesday.

“The media is saying, ‘Just go over to the middle and just be a little to the right of the Liberal Party.” That’s not going to work,” he said in Penticton as he campaigned through the Okanagan.

“As Stephen Harper showed, you can be a principled and unabashed Conservative, but you have to have ideas for the country’s future, you have to speak to Canadians, and you have to defend your principles.”