leadership

Thursday March 8, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 8, 2018

Doug Ford raises abortion issue in effort to woo social conservatives: expert

March 2, 2018

One of the four candidates competing to lead Ontario’s Opposition raised questions about access to abortion this week, resurrecting a political hot potato while stopping short of promising to reopen debate on the issue.

Doug Ford’s statements that he would not personally revive the abortion debate but would allow those in his caucus to bring forward legislation on any matter important to them appears to be a “Hail Mary” move aimed at wooing the party’s socially conservative members as the leadership race comes to a close this weekend, a political analyst said.

February 21, 2018

“This is a top-down leader and for him, on this issue, to be signalling that, hey, it’s ok by him for any of his caucus members to be where they want to be on the map on this one tells me that this is a retail politics vote-getting move, pure and simple,” said Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics at Toronto’s Ryerson University.

“If he really believed it, he would say this is what he’s going to deliver, and the fact that he’s not prepared to say that says to me it’s about appealing to a base and portion of the (Progressive) Conservative party that nobody else has, on this issue, spoken to.”

February 1, 2018

In interviews with various media outlets this week, Ford suggested that as party leader he would welcome having members of his caucus table legislation that would require parental permission for abortions sought by minors.

He clarified his position Tuesday, saying that while he personally believes in “the sanctity of life,” he would follow in the footsteps of the federal Conservatives by not rekindling debate on the issue.

“That being said, I will allow MPPs to draft, bring forward, and debate any legislation that is important to them,” Ford said in a statement.

“The Liberals have set a dangerous and narrow-minded precedent both federally and provincially. I will never put members of my party in a position where they will have to compromise or deny their personal beliefs. I will never muzzle members of our caucus.”

While the right for patients to give or refuse consent is laid out in law, there are currently no provisions regarding parental notification, according to Ontario’s medical regulator. (Source: CTV News) 

 

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Friday March 2, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 2, 2018

Ontario PC Leadership Debate Adds To The Political Drama

February 28, 2018

The race to lead the Ontario Progressive Conservatives might be the most captivating political drama in Canada right now.

The race took another turn this week when Patrick Brown — who sparked the contest by resigning as PC leader last month amid sexual misconduct allegations — abandoned his controversial bid to reclaim his job.

February 15, 2018

Some of the remaining contenders have deep political connections that make for an interesting contest, even for those outside of Canada’s largest province.

Former Toronto councillor Doug Ford is the older brother of late mayor Rob Ford; lawyer Caroline Mulroney is the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney; and former MPP Christine Elliott is the widow of late federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.

Anti-sex-ed activist Tanya Granic Allen has also joined the race as a champion of the social conservative wing of a party that was moved more to the centre under Brown’s leadership.  

February 21, 2018

With voting to begin Friday, PC members are hoping to drill down on policy and priorities of the candidates who seek to lead the party into a June election. More than 1,000 questions have already been submitted by party members for debate consideration, said Raj.

Though Brown has bowed out, questions about his management of the party and the divisions that have surfaced over a tumultuous few weeks remain.(Source: Huffington Post) 

 

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Wednesday February 21, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 21, 2018

Patrick Brown’s PC leadership bid could lead to ‘political fratricide,’ experts say

January 26, 2018

Patrick Brown’s entry into the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race could lead to ruthless infighting, leaving the party at a disadvantage, experts say.

“This is a time when the party should be taking all its resources and throwing them at Kathleen Wynne,” Jim Warren, a political strategist who has worked with the Ontario Liberals, said this week.

“Instead, they’ve got the guns pointed at each other and are about to have a ‘shootout at the OK Corral.’ You will see this real insider fighting — political fratricide, if you will — of the leaders turning on each other.”  

January 30, 2018

Brown entered the race on Friday, just weeks after he resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct made by two women and first reported by CTV.

The other four leadership candidates, preparing for opponents with roughly similar political advantages, will now have to revise their game plan to focus on Brown. The former leader already has a base of support and extensive political experience.

“He’s been the leader for the last two years. He has sold a lot of the memberships to the members now. Are they PC members or Patrick Brown members?” Warren said.

Patrick Brown Retrospective

Either way, Brown’s entry into the leadership race is a gift to the Ontario Liberals, according to Jaime Watt, executive chair of the public relations company Navigator and a long-time Conservative strategist.

“I think it harms all the candidates at an important time in Ontario’s history,” Watt said.

“If I were (Kathleen Wynne) I’d be running to the convenience store to buy a lottery ticket.” (Source: CBC News) 

 

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Thursday February 15, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 15, 2018

Sex-ed and other social-conservative hot buttons starting to light up Ontario Tory leadership race

For more than two years, the Ontario Tories have managed to skirt around the kind of social-conservative flashpoints that have brought them little but grief in the past. But as the party’s leadership race picks up momentum — and a surprise, potential fourth candidate — that unofficial moratorium appears to be ending.

Two of the three most prominent contenders say they will at least revisit the controversial new sex-education curriculum introduced by the Liberal government, with one charging Monday it is riddled with “Liberal ideology,” the other promising she would allow free votes on questions of conscience. And the newest would-be entrant — Tanya Granic Allen, head of a parents group that opposed the sex-ed revamp — is pledging to make sex-ed and similar issues her prime focus.

Pro-life groups are suddenly energized, and hope the candidates will also debate the Liberal law passed last fall that created “bubble zones” around abortion clinics, rendering pro-life protests illegal within 50 metres.

“We have been crying for three years, unwanted in our party, but now are back in the fold,” said Charles McVety, Ontario’s most prominent evangelical Christian activist.

Allen said she will use her candidacy to “force” those issues to the fore — so long as she raises the $100,000 needed to officially run.

“There are a lot of grass-roots conservatives who feel disenfranchised, who feel shut out of this party,” she said in an interview Friday. “I’m here to be their voice.”

The more mainstream candidates are undoubtedly eager to corral some of those Tories, too. Rreaching out to social conservatives may well be a “shrewd” short-term strategy, says pollster Greg Lyle, head of the Innovative Research Group. (Continued: National Post) 

 

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Thursday February 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 1, 2018

With Doug Ford joining PC leadership race, all bets are off

Your mom’s basement is a rather inauspicious venue to announce your ambition to become premier of Ontario, but anybody who underestimates Doug Ford’s chances to win the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership does so at their peril.

October 30, 2014

Ford declared his candidacy on Monday to lead a party in deep turmoil following the resignation of leader Patrick Brown over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Ford is quickly trying to position himself as the populist choice in the race, the outsider, railing against the elites.

“Folks, make no mistake about it,” he said in his short statement from the basement of his mother’s Etobicoke house. “The elites of this party, the ones who have shut out the grassroots, do not want me in this race. But I’m here to give a voice to the hard-working taxpayers of this province, people who have been ignored for far too long.”

Ford’s message might just resonate with a good chunk of the PC membership. And don’t forget Ford’s message already has proven popular with no small number of people in Toronto.

When he stepped into the shoes of his better-known brother Rob Ford to run for mayor in 2014, he came second but won 20 of the city’s 44 wards. He trounced John Tory in Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, the key parts of Toronto that the PCs must swing their way to form a majority provincial government. It`s not a stretch to think he could replicate that success in the 905, the crucial battleground of Ontario politics, and of course in traditional Tory strongholds too. (Continued: CBC) 

Here’s Doug Ford viewing the cartoon during an interview with Cynthia Mulligan, political reporter with CityNews Toronto on March 12, 2018, the Monday after the weekend vote which declared him leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party: 


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