It is often said that people get the government that they deserve. And no one deserves another four years of a Dalton McGuinty majority government more than those small "c" conservatives and members of the Progressive Ontario Party of Ontario who "held their noses" and supported the Tories. The results of last night's election is further proof of the theory that I have always held - that there is something wrong with a society that makes it a criminal offence to drive with 90 milligrams of alcohol per every 100 millilitres of blood but it is perfectly legal to get dead drunk and vote for a party leader who can potentially become the prime minister of Canada or a provincial premier.
Even if he had a different surname, John Tory is a true TINO -- a Tory in name only. It seems that small "c" conservatives in the province have not yet learned that when they abandon their conservatism, in the hopes of riding to victory in the mushy middle, they never win. What would have happened if Mike Harris had led the party during the 2007 campaign? Well, Dalton McGuinty would have ended up with another majority government but at least the party would have stood for something. The return of someone like Harris would have been too much for most voters but a real conservative, who espoused conservative principles, would have obtained better results than John Tory did. If any one-term premier was ripe for the pickings, it was Dalton McGuinty.
Being a bright Red Tory was not the only cause of McGuinty's big victory last night. Besides rushing into the middle, Tory made major blunders that showed, in the words of a phrase that was coined by the PCs when they were still conservative, "he just wasn't up to the job". Throughout the election campaign, John Tory showed a type of arrogance rarely seen in a world inhabited by super-sized egos. He knew, as he admitted in the dying days of the campaign, that his proposal to fund faith-based schools was not what a majority of Ontarians wanted. But Tory wanted to fund these schools because it was "fair", whatever that word means. It was what he wanted. It didn't really matter what Ontarians wanted or more particularly, what the base of his party wanted.
In another display of either total arrogance or woeful political ignorance (the latter being difficult to believe), Tory decided to run against Kathleen Wynne in the Toronto riding of Don Valley West. Tory's rationale for that is that he wanted to win seats in a Toronto riding so he would run in one and chose the area where he grew up. Wynne was a popular Minister of Education in the cabinet of Dalton McGuinty who bills himself as the education premier. Unless it was discovered that she was sexually assaulting babies, Kathleen Wynne was pretty well assured of re-election. Ontarians were a long way away from the stage where the electorate wanted to throw all the Liberals out, despite their anger over McGuinty's broken promises over tax increases and the closing of coal-fired plants. But Tory obviously thought he was being macho when he chose to take on such a high-profile cabinet minister. Again, it was what was for the good of John Tory and not the good of the party or the province. As former premier Ernie Eves remarked on CTV last night, party leaders are different. They don't have time to properly campaign in their own riding; there's nothing wrong with picking a seat in a riding that is considered relatively safe.
Perhaps John Tory's greatest fault was that he lacked a real desire to win; something that was evidenced in the way he approached faith-based funding and his choice of the riding of Don Valley West. Howard Hampton, while acknowledging that he would not be premier showed a much greater desire to win than Tory did. John Tory has held a variety of jobs and positions in the past and he'll have no trouble finding something else to do if this leadership thing doesn't work out. Tory did whatever he wanted to do, regardless of the political consequences. And the PC party and Ontarians will pay the price for the next four years.
After his double loss last night, Tory announced that he has no intention of stepping down from the leadership. The scary thing is that if he stays true to form, he actually will stay on.
So, congratulations Dalton! Just keep doing what you're doing. We're all looking forward to the next big lie or the first tax increase of the new session. Well, at least I am.
