These are worrisome days for Tim Hudak, who if he’s not careful could be gone as leader of the Ontario Conservatives as early as next spring.
With the stench of defeat still lingering in the Tory offices at Queen’s Park following the party’s disastrous election campaign, a fresh wave of trouble is brewing for Hudak that threatens to spoil his dream of leading the party into the next election.
The decision by veteran Tory MPP Frank Klees on Tuesday to break ranks with Hudak and run for Speaker of the Legislature is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems for Hudak.
Klees’s move is a blow to Hudak because if he becomes Speaker, it means the Liberals would have the same number of seats in the Legislature as the opposition. Traditionally, the Speaker votes with the government on crucial issues, which would result in the Liberals staying in power until 2015.
But Hudak has more trouble than just Klees. Among them:
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“The split is so divisive that former leader Ernie Eves said on the eve of the election that he’s worried about the direction of the Hudak-led party, warning that some individuals are attempting to bring American Tea Party-style politics to Ontario.”
Ernie you mean like agitating for smaller, sustainable government at the Pink Palace? Say it isn’t so.
With luck they are numbered, and hopefully the numbers are small …. how, in this day and age, any rational, intelligent, individual could cast a vote for someone who thinks that sexual identity is something that is taught instead of born with remains beyond my grasp.
How any political party could embrace such an individual as a leader is equally mind boggling.
“Cross-dressing for six year olds“? Send the man to the bone heap with the rest of the dinosaurs where he belongs.
Seriously, that’s right up there with the stupidity of “Soldiers…. with guns…. in our streets…. we’re not making this up….“
Maybe Hepburn should learn some history. Frank Miller didn’t lose because he ran a bad campaign. Before resigning as leader Bill Davis extended funding to the separate school system, a very unpopular move, and then left Miller to hold the bag.
“Progressive” policies is what usually hurts the PC party.
Re: “Progressive” policies is what usually hurts the PC party.
Exactly. And it will kill Ontario Tories if they don’t wake up.
Hudak must go and in the upcoming leadership convention he should be fired. Three strikes (Eves, “what’s his face” and now Hudak) — “you’re out”.
“Enough of the bullshit.”
We can do better and we owe it to ourselves to try.
Progressive policies? Hudak did allthe proper conservative things….. he disparaged immigrants, he crapped on renewable energy, he promised to have prisoners cleaning ditches for their keep, he spread the ‘you’re sons are gonna be taught to wear dresses in kindergarten fear, and he took his wife and daughter every where while talking about family and a better place for the next generation.
What else would you have the man do to prove he’s a real Conservative?
Re: “What else would you have the man do to prove he’s a real Conservative?”
Resign?
Have you considered the possibility that just maybe Ontario is not quite as Conservative as you might like to think it is Jack?
That we don’t want to see prisoners cleaning ditches along the highways, that we don’t believe that sexual orientation is either a learned behaviour or a choice, that we don’t really have issues with immigration, and that we do think that investment in renewable energy is a good thing?
……. and that those who disagree are infact a minority of provincial residents that even a new party leader can’t fix?
All the issues that Stage mentions (e.g. disparaging immigrants, not so. McGuinty was guilty of creating immigrant silos and Hudak mishandled it) are just banana peelings that Hudak threw out there that energized progressives like Stage and offered nothing to fiscal conservatives.
Fiscally, Hudak wasted the last 2 years railing about HST and will do nothing about it because it is the most efficient tax available and even Herman Cain is leading because he’s incorporating those ideas when talking 999.
Hudak = Stelmach. We need a Trillium movement that might take a decade to remake the PCs and drop the P…because Stage might have a point with “maybe Ontario is not quite as Conservative as you might like to think it is Jack?”
However, we should take heart because what is miraculous is that Ontario is conservative at all given the fact that for decades we’ve handed our 6 year olds over to Dippers and the media is a propaganda machine for the progressives; e.g. the CBC attacks Rob Ford’s house and kid with impunity. So perhaps we might be on a long build for conservatism in Ontario, like the 13 years in the wilderness when Preston Manning and PMSH started down the path federally. So be it. Let’s get at it.
We could start with clearing the air about the air. “We do think that investment in renewable energy is a good thing” …provided it is done in a way that doesn’t make us uncompetitive and doesn’t hand our economy over to the Chinese who are building a new coal fired plant every month.
In short, restore the word COMPETITIVE to the vocabulary at the Pink Palace.
The Trillium movement bumper sticker should be: We Can Make Ontario Competitive Again