That's not a coincidence. MacKay was next in line according to the party elder's succession plan. They've been grooming him since the early 2000's.
Deputy CPC leader, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, Minster of Justice/Attorney General - that's the resumé of someone who's being groomed for the big chair. O'Toole is a nobody by comparison. He wasn't even on the establishment's radar.
The party elders probably asked PP to step aside for MacKay, and probably told him he'd get his turn next. In exchange he'd get the backing of the party establishment when he runs for leader, in the same way the establishment backed MacKay in 2020.
But then the unthinkable happened. O'Toole won, because of the convoluted "ranked ballot" system which the CPC should have scrapped in 2017 after Sheer won because of it.
Well he didn't "let" O'Toole take anything over, PP just withdrew from the leadership race. If he was trying to "let" anyone win, it was MacKay.
The timing more or less proves that Poilievre stepped aside to let MacKay win, not O'Toole.
That's not a coincidence. MacKay was next in line according to the party elder's succession plan. They've been grooming him since the early 2000's.
Deputy CPC leader, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, Minster of Justice/Attorney General - that's the resumé of someone who's being groomed for the big chair. O'Toole is a nobody by comparison. He wasn't even on the establishment's radar.
The party elders probably asked PP to step aside for MacKay, and probably told him he'd get his turn next. In exchange he'd get the backing of the party establishment when he runs for leader, in the same way the establishment backed MacKay in 2020.
But then the unthinkable happened. O'Toole won, because of the convoluted "ranked ballot" system which the CPC should have scrapped in 2017 after Sheer won because of it.