Posted on 10/07/2011 4:03:25 AM PDT by Clive
Two words coined by a Sun colleague sum up the problem with the Progressive Conservative campaign in this election.
Timid Hudak.
PC Leader Tim Hudak seemed more frightened of losing than energized by the prospect of winning.
Early polls showing him with a double-digit lead over Premier Dalton McGuinty spooked him. Hudak and his advisers wrongly believed they could cruise to victory by keeping a low profile and letting the public’s distrust of McGuinty do the rest.
But McGuinty was a smart, tough campaigner, fighting his fourth election as Liberal leader, third as premier.
And if voters were going to switch from the devil they know, Hudak had to give them a reason to do so.
He failed.
The Tories’ platform, Changebook, correctly observed, “the (McGuinty) government spends far more than it ever did and services haven’t improved. As a result, we face record deficits that will not go away without setting priorities.”
But what was Hudak’s “solution”? Bizarrely, to balance the budget by 2017-2018, two years beyond the mandate of the government he was seeking to lead from 2011 to 2015.
Despite criticizing the Liberals for having too many priorities, Hudak did the same.
First, he flip-flopped, promising to implement McGuinty’s expensive, all-day kindergarten program, despite hard times.
He promised to throw $6.1 billion more at health care, without any real plan to eliminate waste.
To spend $2 billion more on education, deliver 5,000 new long-term care beds, 60,000 new post-secondary student spaces, extend the gas tax to more communities and spend $35 billion on infrastructure over three years.
Basically, Hudak ran as “McGuinty lite”.
Meanwhile, McGuinty and his public sector union pals — the latter’s loyalty paid for by taxpayers through McGuinty’s irresponsibly costly labour contracts — demonized Hudak as a Mike Harris clone.
In fact, Hudak’s campaign could have used the laser-like focus former Conservative premier Mike Harris displayed in winning two majority governments in 1995 and 1999, especially his 1995 campaign where everyone knew what he stood for — tax cuts, no welfare
Hudak never developed a similar, clear message such as reducing government spending, paying down debt and reining in the public sector.
He railed against McGuinty’s Harmonized Sales Tax, but wouldn’t promise to get rid of it, save for a few items.
When McGuinty handed him a gift — a vote-pandering promise to give employers a $10,000 tax credit to hire new Canadians, Hudak misfired.
By calling it a boon to “foreign workers” Hudak sounded anti-immigrant, instead of making the valid point the problem was it gave special status to some Canadians over others.
Hudak’s law-and-order agenda, such as putting tracking bracelets on sex offenders and making prisoners work, weren’t bad in themselves. But also not enough to convince people to vote for him in the absence of any defining idea of what his campaign was about.
Given that he increased the Tories’ seat count by 11 to 37 and upped their percentage of the popular vote by 3.5% to 35.1% compared to John Tory in 2007 — plus held McGuinty to a minority government — Hudak’s in no danger of being dumped by his party.
But the Tories need to look at themselves in the mirror this morning and start deciding what it is they stand for.
I am disgusted. A few months ago I thought this was in the bag. Then last week I see a poll with McCrappy ahead.
So the Tories blew it huh? Damn.
Given that he increased the Tories’ seat count by 11 to 37 and upped their percentage of the popular vote by 3.5% to 35.1% compared to John Tory in 2007 — plus held McGuinty to a minority government — Hudak’s in no danger of being dumped by his party.Why the hell not! I am quite prepared to see him dumped. He had a 20 percent lead when the writ was dropped and dropped to a final 2 percent below the Grits in the final vote. He lost the urban vote, including a shutout in the Greater Toronto Area, Nobody governs Ontario without the winning the cities.
Hudak seemed to be saying "me too" in most of the issues in which the citizens of Ontario were ready for some home truths about the state of Ontario's economy.
Conservatives found themselves with nobody advancing their positions on any of the serious issues except some Tory voices crying in the wilderness in some rural ridings.
Margaret Thatcher once said about Brian Mulroney as leader of the (now defunct) federal Progressive Conservative party that he placed too much emphasis on the adjective. The same can be said, a fortiori about Tim Hudak in this election.
Perhaps we ought to do to the Ontario Progressive Conservative party what we did to the federal one. Wipe it out, accept a spell in the wilderness while we build a populist conservative movement, then reunite the conservatives while elbowing aside the progressive elements. It worked federally in the long run (not without some pain).
When you get an-honest-about-himself Liberal running against a phony-baloney "Conservative," this is the result you will invariably get. And there's a lesson here for the GOP, which it had best learn before it's too late and we get stuck with Romney as the GOP standard bearer post-primary.
Now Ontario is stuck with the commie-left NDP, socialist-left ruling Liberals and socialist-lite and powerless Progressive Conservatives. If they don't dump this disaster of a leader, they'll wander the wilderness in 4 years too.
Let us heed the lesson then and not nominate Mitt Romney.
I am all in favour of doing my part to give rise to an Ontario TEA Party. The Sun article was dead on the money as were a few comments who advocated ‘purging the Liberal progressives from the party’. ... In one quick sentence, can anyone encapsulate what the Ontario Tories actually stood for in this election? Throughout the campaign, Hudak parroted much of the same rhetoric as McGuinty and showed just how low and principle-bereft the Tories have fallen. Any argument about what was different between McGuinty and Hudak would take about 5 seconds to conclude....and reach an obvious draw.
Plain and simple, it was VISION that was lacking along with the GUTS to see it through that was Hudak’s shortcoming. Ontario has a number of huge messes on their hands including one major one that was addressed precisely in the Sun piece..... McGuinty has shown that will be more than willing to cave into the civil service unions to give them exactly what they want and by the next election, there will be another differentiation that we can all argue about.... in what way is Ontario any different than Greece?
Nothing to see here, people were presented with 2 liberal visions and chose the one that would give them more stuff.
During campaign I felt like watching rigged football match and was not surprised by the outcome.
Hudak could destroy McGuinty by offering to get rid of HST and reform usurious car insurance scam (Ontarians pay more than double for car insurance than people in other provinces).
Now, we should get ready to pay tax on AGW scam.
IMHO, Ontario is basket case and anyone with senses should consider to move elsewhere in Canada.
I agree Clive.
We need a Conservative Leader, neither of which Hudak is.
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