A prime tenet of military leadership is Extreme Ownership, made famous by Navy Seals Jocko Willink and Leif Babin in their book of the same name.
The concept is simple.
Leadership, at every level, is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails.
As MP Bob Benson put it yesterday, “Leaders should be judged by their own actions and their performance measured against their own standards.”
This is extreme ownership.
It applies to every single member of the team and doubly so for the team’s leader.
If your mission failed, it’s because you failed in at least one major way.
If your team failed, it’s because you failed them in at least one critical capacity.
In Erin O’Toole’s case, mission failure was the inevitable result of the poor choices he made on a variety of fronts, the largest of which is his refusal to accept responsibility for any of his mistakes.
O’Toole leaned heavily on threats, coercion and petty retribution against political rivals. When threats and coercion failed to deliver the desired results, he blamed anyone and everyone else for his failures.
O’Toole was the worst kind of leader – one who blames everyone but themselves.
That’s not leadership, it’s cowardice.
It’s also a lack of character of the highest order.
You Just Don’t Understand!
O’Toole says the membership simply didn’t understand him or his plan to transform the Conservative Party.
If your team doesn’t understand your plan, you have failed to communicate effectively. That’s your fault, not your team’s fault.
O’Toole blamed former leader Andrew Scheer and then Alberta MP Garnet Genuis for the caucus revolt.
O’Toole threatened MPs with “consequences” should they oppose him further.
“I’m not going anywhere and I’m not turning back,” O’Toole said on Twitter. “Canada needs us to be united and serious! It’s time for a reckoning. To settle this in caucus. Right here. Right now. Once and for all. Anger vs. Optimism. That is the choice in simple terms.”
The only thing I agree with O’Toole on is that it is time for a reckoning.
Canada’s conservative movement needs a leader of integrity and sound character, a leader who will unite conservatives instead of divide them.
That was never Erin O’Toole.
“I will accept the result of this vote,” O’Toole continued. “The signers of this letter must accept it, too. They brought it. They’ll have to live with it.”
The tone of his comments last night are not those of a leader who respects his colleagues or his party’s members. O’Toole’s tone was that of an angry parent dealing with disobedient children.
That is not leadership.
O’Toole promised anything to anyone in caucus if they would support him in the vote.
Three sources told Global News that O’Toole and his close allies reached out to MPs Tuesday to try and win their support. Two of those sources said O’Toole opened the door to changing some policies he campaigned on just six months ago — if he survives Wednesday’s vote.
“It’s too late for that,” said one Conservative caucus source. “You can have the best policies, you can have the best ideas, you can finally come up with something people agree with. But the message doesn’t matter if you don’t trust the messenger.”
And that’s the bottom line.
Erin O’Toole lied to his members and his caucus colleagues too many times to be trusted. Poll after poll revealed O’Toole failed to resonate with women. In every age bracket and political leaning, women felt he could not be trusted, that there was something deceitful at his very core.
Never Permit Your Opponent to Frame You
O’Toole’s larger problem is he allowed Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party to set the agenda, to frame him and his leadership in a light most favourable to them.
For months Erin O’Toole said an election wasn’t necessary because… ‘pandemic’.
The only reason an election was not necessary is if O’Toole believes his primary rival is doing a good job.
If O’Toole actually disagreed with anything Trudeau, one would expect he would jump at the opportunity to defeat the Liberal leader at the polls.
But he didn’t.
O’Toole’s electoral reluctance means he believed Justin Trudeau is the best person to lead Canada through COVID.
That was an absurd position for O’Toole to take. He could not legitimately claim Trudeau’s pandemic response (or anything else) sucked while simultaneously avoiding an election and the opportunity to defeat him.
Honestly, O’Toole made it far too easy for the Liberal Party’s War Room.
He chose the wrong path as evidenced by the results of the 2021 election, yet the only way O’Toole would even consider changing course on his failed policies is if he could leverage that promise of change to hold on to the big chair.
That’s not leadership. That’s desperation.
His handling of the Freedom Convoy 2022 or, more specifically, his failure to answer a simple question about the convoy was the final nail in O’Toole’s political coffin.
When the best he had to offer Canadians was Justin Trudeau talking points on vaccination even Candice Bergen, his hand-picked deputy leader, jumped ship.
That was the moment I knew that Erin O’Toole was finished.
The Road Ahead
O’Toole treated conservative voters and party members like ignorant children who were too dumb to understand “big boy ideas.”
His high-handed approach, combined with his need for petty revenge against anyone who disagreed with him, are the primary reasons people across the political spectrum despised him.
The challenge for the conservative movement, now that Erin O’Toole is finally gone, is to find a leader who can unite the party.
O’Toole failed spectacularly in this regard. In fact, it seemed he was committed to dividing the party even further in his push to become more Liberal.
Uniting the Party is not the impossible challenge many seem to think it is. All it requires is an individual with the integrity to stake out policy positions and communicate them with clarity so that, even if I disagree with the position I can understand why and how you got there.
An even larger challenge for the new leader, however, is to re-engage with all those Conservative Party members who stopped donating, stopped volunteering their time and expertise and stopped renewing their Party memberships.
O’Toole is responsible for the two worst fundraising quarters in Conservative Party history. That single metric is the best indicator of O’Toole’s failure.
When your failure to communicate your vision causes your most committed donors and volunteers to close their wallets and walk away from the Party, you’re finished.
O’Toole single-handedly drove out the party’s most committed members, then said, essentially, “Who cares? We don’t need them anyway.”
That he still insists, after the vote to punt him from the leader’s chair, to blame others for his failures is a sad commentary on the man and ultimately reveals his stunning lack of character.
The Next Leader
The leadership contest will be interesting, I hope.
Millions of conservative voters now anxiously wait to see who will toss their name into the ring.
My hope is that a man or woman of integrity will step up to the plate and accept the daunting challenge ahead.
My fervent prayer is that individual embraces the concept of extreme ownership because it’s inspiring to engage with a leader who has your back, no matter what, and gives you all the tools you need to win.
Because when your leader accepts full responsibility for their decisions and openly corrects course when they’re wrong it makes all of us more courageous and willing to embrace extreme ownership for our part in the mission too.
This is the win-win scenario the Conservative Party needs from their next leader.
Don says
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A defective ‘toole’ cannot fix anything. Throw it out and get a good quality new one..
And you Christopher, gave all the very valid reasons. Well done. It was long past time for him to be gone. All gone.
He sounded so much like little trudeau spouting the same left wing drivel that one has to wonder if he was a plant.
Christopher di Armani says
I will never understand why O’Toole thought his plan to out-Left the Left could ever succeed. I’m so glad he’s gone.
Arie Intveld says
I deplore a “coke-bottle-shouldered” man; a man where each instance of culpability just slides right off, where “sitting on your own blisters” is not an option and valid self-recrimination never even enters their mind.
Canada Proud pushed out a survey today, asking who should be O’Toole’s replacement. I didn’t participate in the survey; rather, I sent the following message to the Canada Proud “surveyors” …
“Dear Canada Proud team,
We might want to start with whittling down the list of CPC leadership contenders first, before asking who should replace Erin O’Toole.
Anyone stepping up to represent small-c conservatives (the grassroots base) needs to abandon the “Big Blue Tent” approach of acquiescing to every Canadian political ideology except one’s own.
Also, any new leader of Canadian conservatives had better not have any affiliations with the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab or his Young Global Leaders indoctrination program. Conservatives do not want another globalism twatwaffle. This alone makes Rempel-Garner a non-contender.
Be very cautious in choosing your own devil … “
peter bolten says
During the leadership process that somehow saw O’Toole come out as the winner in the second round, he did not get the majority popular vote from the membership. Strange way of choosing a leader.
Perhaps the next leader will be that person, the one that gained the most popularity and donated funds and even captivated the nation’s media, I wish her good luck and good skill..
Gerry Kirkham. says
Great commentary Christopher! I also agree with Arie above regarding the globalists. What we need is a leader with cohones, and yeah it can be female as well. Although the PPC are now closest to my personal values, and I have sent some financial support to them, I never signed up as a member, but I cannot explain why, except for being just bone weary of the political classes all together.
As you know, every now and then we would get a call from the ‘party’ asking for funds. The last time they called me, I was not rude, but I was a little abrupt. I stated, “when the conservative party starts acting and behaving like a conservative party should, then I too would again start acting like a conservative party member should, until then, I’m not interested”. They have never called again, and until they show me some backbone, they need not bother!
Lynn Cournoyer says
Great commentary Christopher, you hit every nail right on the head. When I read that Erin O’Trudeau had been ousted I did a happy dance like never before. His stupidity finally caught up with him. The membership has spoken. Pack your bags and move on. We have to listen to the bs from the liberals every day. we shouldn’t have to hear the same from the Conservatives leaders. I hope that the next leader has taken notice and listens to the members. We hired you and we fired you. I hope we get a good choice of hopeful candidates to take over. Good by Erin, I won’t miss you.
Christopher di Armani says
My wife too, Lynn! Total Snoopy Happy Dance all day! Was very amusing.
peter bolten says
I hope too that the next leader truly listens to the members and citizens, Lynn.
When the the media was talking all day long, panelists were already dropping names , some made me wince, former members of the Harper government that were Ministers and now sit on Boards, etc., and these people state they make more money than being a minister.
I hear this often over the decades , provincial and federal politics, even trickling down to municipal politics.
Often I feel an emotion like crying for my adult children, for their generation’s future. I feel helpless.
It saddens me, because it seems that no matter how noble a new MP/MLA starts out, their loyalties have switched . I wonder how many boots are licked, back room deals agreed upon, with Corporate entities, for these politicians to land a parachute plum job high up elsewhere post politics.
I truly hope the next leader listens to members this time, but I often feel like Charlie Brown staring and running towards a football..
Lynn Cournoyer says
Next time you feel that way Peter, just imagine that it is trudeau,s ass and kick for the goal posts. TOUCHDOWN.
Alex Holland says
I am not sure I can fully agree. For a team to win it must get behind its’ leader from the get go. While I think O’Toole made some mistakes, I think it is a mistake to think a far right wing agenda has any hope of winning an election. There are simply too many Greens, Liberals, NDP and even Bloc chipping away at the base. The PC need to be a right leaning but still somewhat centralist government to have any hope of winning.
If you want to change the way the government works you need to win an election first and then worry about making changes. You cannot make any changes until you are in the drivers seat. What I saw in the election is on half of the PC taking swipes against O’Tool and basically undermining their own cause. It was stupid and petty and the wrong time to do it. Do it before an election is called, do it after you have won an election. Don’t be moronic and do it during the election to be sure that you take down your own leader and by doing so take down any chance of beating the liberals. The liberals did not beat the PC, the PC, beat themselves. One team, one focus for better or worse. Show Canadians why they need a right leaning government and not a bunch of squabbling kids that cannot even go in the same direction.
If you want to blame anyone for the lost election, blame the ones who went their own road, regardless of results and made sure the PC lost the election. The time to voice change is during the PC leader election. Once it is over, follow him/her for better or worse. I was disgusted in the way many PC acted during the elections.
Maybe next time the team will focus on the win before the internal fights.