Harper comes through for the Ontario Conservatives

By Arthur Weinreb —— Bio and Archives December 23, 2008

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It’s hard to glance at or hear the news these days without the word “bailout” popping up. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had the chance to bailout Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory this week and graciously declined to do so. Tory has spent since the election of October 2007 without a seat in the provincial legislature. Unlike other party leaders who end up at the head of their party with minimal legislative experience, Tory decided not to run in a safe seat that would have allowed him to spend time throughout Ontario bolstering his party instead of trying to win his riding. Tory, for reasons that are hard to understand, decided to run against popular Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne in her heavily Liberal Toronto riding. His Arrogance lost. Since then Tory has been trying to get someone in his caucus to give up their seat so he can run in a by-election, all to no avail. That was probably a good thing because John Tory could have possibly lost the by-election too, making a complete joke out of the party that recently spent eight years with strong majority governments.

In a stunning act of foolishness, even for him, Tory promised that he would make a decision as to whether he would stay on as leader or go by the end of this year. He failed to honour that promise and will pass his self imposed deadline. It seems Dalton McGuinty is not the province’s only political leader who feels that promises are made to be broken. No doubt Tory purposely passed his deadline because he was hoping that Stephen Harper would come through for him by using one of the two then-vacant Ontario Senate seats to accomplish what Tory couldn’t do; free up an Ontario riding for him to run it. There were rumours that Harper would appoint de facto PC leader Bob Runciman to the Senate, leaving John with a safe riding in which it would be difficult even for him to lose. And Runciman’s background as a long time MPP would better serve Canadians in the Red Chamber than say, a skier. But Harper didn’t play ball. The Ontario PCs could learn a lot from the federal Liberals. Despite the fact that the Liberals have not been in power since 2006, they are still Canada’s Natural Governing Party. While the Liberals ability to choose a party leader leaves a lot to be desired, they sure know how to get rid of one. After leading the party to its worst showing since Confederation, Stéphane Dion was in no hurry to exit. So he was pushed and forced out. Those Libs don’t fool around. And when the coalition was formed the Liberals were in the position of wanting Dion to become the prime minister of Canada even though they had decided that he wasn’t fit to lead his party. Only in Canada. If John Tory tells the party that he intends to stay on, it will be time for a push. Tory is totally incapable of leading the party to victory over Dalton McGuinty; someone who if was not beatable in 2007 probably will be in 2011. Since winning the leadership John Tory’s most memorable feat was kicking MPP Bill Murdoch out of caucus for saying what most people believe – that Tory has to go. Tory’s criticism of the governing Liberals is weak, due to the fact that the Red Tory pretty well agrees with most things that they do. And by not living up to his promise to make a decision by the end of 2008, he has lost all moral authority to criticize Dalton McGuinty for breaking promises. The Tories should be grateful that Harper did not construct a situation where Tory had a good excuse to stay. John Tory has had various careers during his life. He’s practiced law, been the Commissioner of the CFL and was “the cable guy” at Rogers. It’s time for him to move on. It’s time for him to open that pub – Seatless John’s.