By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Dissension over Tim Hudak’s leadership comes to a swift end
In the end, judgment was brutal and swift.
After weeks of talk about dissension in the ranks of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives and questions about the suitability of Tim Hudak as the party’s leader, the challenge to him, such as it was, was washed away on Saturday by a sea of red placards. Delegates to a PC convention here in London voted overwhelmingly against a constitutional amendment that would have made it easier for party members to engineer a leadership review. If there were 900 delegates in the ballroom of the London Convention Centre, perhaps a dozen of them held up blue placards in favour of the motion. The rest were red, and when they were held aloft, it was the rare instance in which PCs cheered loudly for Liberal colours.
Party members were plainly annoyed at even having to discuss the issue that has put Mr. Hudak on the defensive since the PCs managed to win one of five Aug. 1 by-elections. One of the party members who put forward the amendment, Arne Brown from the London-Fanshawe riding, defended it as not a knock on Mr. Hudak in particular, but the correction of a process that does not allow dissenting voices to bring their concerns to the party executive or riding associations. (Source: National Post)