1. Canadian Politician and Leader of the Conservative Party
2. Early Life and Education
3. Political Career
4. Hospital Lease Dispute
5. Advocacy Against Anti-Semitism
6. UN Participation
7. 2014 Ottawa Shooting
8. Personal Life

Canadian Politician and Leader of the Conservative Party

Erin O'Tooleis a Canadian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carleton, Ottawa since 2015. He is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Early Life and Education

Erin O'Toole was born into a Franco-Saskatchewan family and adopted by schoolteachers Marlene and Donald O'Toole. His biological maternal grandfather, an Irish Canadian, met O'Toole as an adult. O'Toole attended the University of Calgary, initially pursuing commerce before switching to international relations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Political Career

Early Years

In 2004, O'Toole was elected as a Conservative in the riding of Nepean-Carleton (west Ottawa), defeating Liberal cabinet minister David Pratt by 3,736 votes. Re-elected in 2006 with 55% of the vote, O'Toole went on to be re-elected in 2008 and 2011 with similar margins. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to various ministers, including the President of the Treasury Board and the Prime Minister.

Hospital Lease Dispute

In the summer of 2006, O'Toole and John Baird, President of the Treasury Board, helped secure a $1-a-year lease for the Queensway Carleton Hospital from the National Capital Commission. Prior to the deal they brokered, the hospital was paying the NCC $23,000 per year in rent. The hospital's lease was set to expire in 2013, and the rent was scheduled to increase significantly.

Advocacy Against Anti-Semitism

On February 13, 2009, O'Toole spoke in the House of Commons about incidents of alleged anti-Semitism at York University, where students chanted "anti-Zionist" slogans. O'Toole asserted that Canadians must stand against anti-Semitism on college and university campuses.

UN Participation

O'Toole was sent by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Geneva, Switzerland in April 2009 to attend the conference on combating racism, discrimination, and intolerance. This conference was held alongside the Durban Review Conference, which the Prime Minister criticized as being filled with "anti-Semitic rhetoric." During this same trip, O'Toole traveled to Poland to participate in the International March of the Living to former Nazi concentration camps, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.

2014 Ottawa Shooting

On October 22, 2014, O'Toole was on Parliament Hill during a terrorist attack on the House of Commons. He barricaded himself in the Conservative caucus room with the Prime Minister and several other MPs. He was one of several MPs who broke flagpoles and fashioned them into spears to fend off the assailant should he breach the room. Later, when he and other Conservative ministers and MPs met in the Lester B. Pearson Building, O'Toole brought his spear as a memento.

Personal Life

O'Toole married Anaida Galindo, a Senate staffer, in a ceremony held in Portugal in January 2018. They had their first child, Valentina Alejandra O'Toole Galindo, on October 17, 2018. On September 12, 2021, O'Toole welcomed his second child, Cruz Alejandro O'Toole. O'Toole is bilingual, speaking both English and French fluently.

Politics