There’s an air of unreality about Ontario politics these days.
At Queen’s Park, Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals are pretending it is business as usual. A new session of the Legislature begins at noon on Monday with the reading of the Speech from Throne, and Finance Minister Charles Sousa will follow with his 2018 budget on March 28.
In a demonstration of organizational incompetence seldom seen in Canadian politics, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives found a way on Saturday to deny their leadership to candidate Christine Elliott, who both won the popular vote and carried a majority of the province’s 124 ridings.
Instead, Doug Ford, older brother of Toronto’s late mayor Rob Ford, was declared the winner under the party’s absurdly complicated and error-riven system of “electoral points,” which was heavily loaded in favour of ridings where the party has few members.
See this recent story on research by LISPOP associates Jason Roy and Christopher Alcantara on negative ads, star candidates, and endorsements. Are they effective? Should campaigners in the Ontario eleciton pay attention to them?
Check it out!
“Words fail me,” a long-time Ontario Tory insider.
This veteran of many campaigns is not alone. Many of his fellows – organizers, workers, candidates and rank-and-file members – are aghast at what is going on in the party they have supported through good times and not-so-good times.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”– Will Rogers (1879-1935), actor, humorist and social commentator.
The three candidates for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party know whereof Rogers spoke. They are scheduled to face off this Thursday night in a debate to be broadcast province-wide on TVOntario. The party says a second debate will be held later, but the date has not been determined.
