Erin O’Toole in his farewell address to Parliament yesterday urged MPs to avoid the “sinkhole of diversion and division.” O’Toole is resigning as a four-term MP (Durham, Ont.) after accepting blame for the Conservative Party’s 2021 election loss.

“Too many of us are often chasing algorithms down a sink hole of diversion and division,” said O’Toole. “We are becoming elected officials who judge our self-worth by how many likes we get on social media but not how many lives we change in the real world.”

“Performance politics is fueling polarization,” said O’Toole. “Virtue signaling is replacing discussion and far too often we are just using this chamber to generate clips, not to start national debates.”

The Conservative Party in the last campaign lost 491,827 votes and two House seats compared to the 2019 election. “I am responsible for that,” O’Toole said last October 6. “We’re all disappointed, no one more so than me.” He announced his resignation as MP on March 31.