Kenora MP Eric Melillo says he’s excited to have Erin O’Toole as the new leader of the federal Conservative Party.
The rookie Conservative representative explains why he endorsed the new leader of the opposition before Sunday’s vote.
“He’s got a lot of experience in politics. Serving our country in the Armed Forces. He’s shown very early on in our Parliament and throughout the election campaign that northern Ontario is a focus for him and he understands all regions of the country.”
O’Toole, a southern Ontario MP, defeated former justice minister Peter MacKay receiving 57% of the vote.
Melillo adds he wasn’t surprised with the lengthy delay for the results to come in.
“These are the types of things that unfortunately happen at conventions all the time. Whether a federal leadership, or provincial leadership, different parties, we’ve seen long waits for results for quite some time. Really nothing new.”
Melillo stresses now that they have a new leader, their end goal is to defeat the sitting Liberals and form government.
He says to do that they’ll have to come together as a party.
“Leadership races are divisive by nature. That’s just how they work. People are exchanging ideas and having passionate debates but at the end of the day we’re all Conservatives, we unite around principles that we believe in.”
Melillo adds that the next steps are for O’Toole to form his team, and then at some point a party – wide caucus meeting.
