Political scientists and strategists agree that Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is reaching for both centrist and Ontario voters, but disagree on whether the approach will succeed. Barry Cooper, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, says the Conservatives are trying to gain “the mushy middle, which is already pretty much monopolized by the mushy Liberals,” and the approach won’t work. “If you are a conservative and you have deep suspicions about various forms of political correctness, you’re going to look around for somebody like that to vote for, and if you don’t find it in the Conservative Party, then you’re probably not going to vote,” Cooper said in an interview. He adds that “appeasing” the media won’t be a winning strategy “if the media are part of the problem.” During Andrew Scheer’s tenure as party leader, he was often confronted by members of the media over his personal …