A race for the right: Ontario PC leadership race kicks off

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: CANADAPANDA/ISTOCK EDITORIAL/THINKSTOCK
Kathleen Wynne - pictured next to Justin Trudeau - is the current Liberal premier the Conservatives are looking to dethrone.

Five months after Tim Hudak’s failure to unseat Ontario’s Liberal Premiere Kathleen Wynne, the Ontario PC Party announced that a leadership election will be held next spring.

The PC Party has struggled to gain support in provincial elections in Ontario since the days of Mike Harris in the early 2000’s, and despite being poised for success, they were unable to capitalize on the opportunity. A powerhouse decade for the Liberals saw Dalton McGuinty make three successful bids for the premiere’s office until he retired in disgrace over the gas plant scandal.

Wynne took over as interim leader before going on to win a majority in the provincial election in June of this year.

The key to any kind of success for the Ontario PC Party will be to moderate their campaign promises. Hudak introduced a plan to lay off 100,000 public employees as a cost-saving strategy, which was a titanic error in judgement that cost him the election.

Regardless of whether the positions cost tax-payers money, promising layoffs will not win elections. The most viable course of action is to highlight the errors in judgement and deliberate malfeasance evident in the past years of Liberal government.

The lineup expected for the 2015 PC leadership race is already causing controversy, long before it’s finalized. Doug Ford has been slated as a likely candidate after his failure to replace his brother Rob Ford as the mayor of Toronto. Local Member of Provincial Parliament for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Monte McNaughton, is also expected to participate.

The clear front-runner – if there can be one so early on – is Conservative MPP Christine Elliot, who is polling about seven points ahead of Ford according to a Forum Research poll that was released on November 3.

The philosophy of politics in Canada is that whether the government is considered to lean left or right, they will typically govern from the centre. A Conservative government, no matter how conservative, will never try to abolish free healthcare, just as no NDP or Liberal government would abolish currency.

During his run for the premiere’s office, Tim Hudak simply had to provide a moderate alternative to the teetering Liberal Party. His promise to create a million jobs in a time when less than a million Ontarians were unemployed coupled with his plan to slash the public sector made him appear radical, which is one of the least desirable qualities in a candidate.

The most paramount issue that could affect the entire course of the next provincial election will be the process of electing the next PC leader. Specifically, whether the Ontario PC Party can maintain its dignity.

Leadership races are hotly contested affairs that frequently generate substantial turmoil within the party as the inevitable power struggles ensue. If the party members can hold rank and find a way to make it to election day without beating themselves, the Liberals will do the rest of the job for them.

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