And the winner in Haliburton – Kawartha Lakes – Brock is .... the Ontario PC Party!

Thursday’s by-election resulted in the best possible outcome for PC Ontario. After the self-inflicted 2007 provincial election loss, the party urgently needed rebuilding. The best way to do that is with a leadership race attracting new ideas and face faces to the demoralized party, and now it is getting that chance. The worst possible outcome from a party perspective would have been for John Tory to eke out a slim victory in what is the safest conservative seat in the province. A weak, wounded Conservative leader continuing to dangle over the edge of the abyss - that would have made an ideal gift for Dalton McGuinty.

Much has been made of John Tory’s nice-guy personality from conservative-leaning pundits. Having met the man twice, I can personally attest to that aspect of him. Nevertheless I have long lost any sympathy for the man. After two electoral disasters under his belt (the first being Kim Campbell’s 1993 election campaign – the single worst election catastrophe in Canadian history for any party - which he managed), he needed to do the honourable thing and quit. And if he had done that right away, an opening would have been made for his rehabilitation. He could have then run in the next provincial election as an ordinary candidate. As a former party leader who had the good sense to leave gracefully, he would have been guaranteed a cabinet post by the new party leader once McGuinty was dispatched.

But instead, he made the classic weak man mistake of clinging to an untenable position (cf. Joe Clark), and, as a result, he delayed the beginning of his party’s healing process by a year and a half with his quixotic quest for a seat in the provincial legislature. That was a fundamentally selfish act and that is why I shed no tear for him today.

The good news is that there is still plenty of time left to rebuild the party before the next election is upon us. Even though a leadership race will take about a year, there will still remain at least another year for the new leader to find his footing before the writ is dropped. And whether the Conservatives have 23 or 24 seats at Queens Park right now doesn’t matter a whit, thanks to the commanding majority Tory gave the Liberals in 2007. As well, Haliburton – Kawartha Lakes – Brock will be an easy pick-up for Lauri Scott when the party is under decent leadership again.

Comments

[cuttingthrough]

I agree... the writing is obviously on the wall when one of your MPs gets more traction you as leader. Tory may be a nice, smart guy but people didn't hear him. I hope Peter Shurman is the next leader. He was heard clearly during the York strike and has been impressive on other issues as well. He's different than the rest of the band and he's clearly got skills.

[real conservative]

Now we can finally get rid of this loser and his gay parade.