The new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has a message for the Prime Minister regarding western alienation.

Erin O’Toole had a brief phone conversation the Justin Trudeau after winning the party leadership.

He said while appearing on the NL Morning News, he told the PM the Liberal’s green policies are making the east/west divide even greater. “I said if your Throne speech continues to be anti resource, anti softwood lumber agreement, anti energy, like they seem to not like jobs in the resource sector at large.”

“If you do that Prime Minister, you’re going to exacerbate the national unity crisis that is already bad.”

O’Toole said the Liberals anti resource stance is pushing the West further away. “I gave him a courtesy heads up that that will be an important factor. If this is some ideological speech about big bold and green or just buzz lines that actually hurt working families, he’s going to hear an earful from me.”

He says the party is to blame as much as the P.M. “While I have respect for the office, I have respect for the person but I know very well that Mr Trudeau is essentially managed by people around him and the people around him are very ideologically left. They’re against people that get their hands dirty whether it’s in the oil patch, whether it’s some of the lumber mills we’ve seen close in British Columbia including in your area.”

O’Toole says there are real challenges to our economy right now and Canadians don’t need what he calls “virtue signalling policies” adding the government needs to help working families particularly after COVID-19.