Wow! What a difference a week can make in provincial politics in Ontario. Patrick was forced to step down as leader of the PC party because some anonymous girls claimed that he had sexually harassed them some years ago. In a short time, all of Patrick’s so-called friends quickly abandoned him, leaving him to face the media alone. It seems that it doesn’t take proof or court rooms to prove guilt anymore.
Then Vic Fedali stepped up and was crowned leader of the party to face off against Wynne in June. That didn’t last long. It appears that Vic’s gushing appreciation for the unanimous vote of confidence from the caucus didn’t impress the backroom puppeteers. They soon had the PC riding association explain that there would be a full blown leadership campaign to pick a new leader to head into the election in June.
Now we have had a clean out of Patrick’s cohorts. Rick Dykstra, President of the PC Riding Association stepped down, Bob Stanley, Patrick’s right-hand man stepped down, Tamara MacGregor, Stanley’s go-to girl when overseeing nomination meetings, also stepped down as well as many other associates.
Hoping to turn the party around, Doug Ford has now stepped up to run as leader, putting a lot of pressure on Vic Fedili while promising to take the power away from the elites, to clean house and to get back to grassroots politics.
I like Doug Ford, but we have heard these same promises before. John Tory held policy consulting seminars and the Landowners participated and many good policies were developed. None of those mattered when they brought out his ‘faith-based school program’ and gave away the election. Tim Hudak promised grassroots policies and we in the Landowners took part. Again good paper was created that if followed, would have helped many people and improved life in Ontario. It wasn’t meant to be! Out of nowhere, Hudak proposed to cut 100,000 jobs. The election was over, even though up until then, the PC’s were far ahead in the polls.
Then Patrick Brown promised to make a clean sweep of the party and rebuild it from the bottom. His words rang true throughout his nomination run and he continued for a time, after becoming leader but suddenly, out of the blue, he flipped on every promise. Many of us speculated that someone had put some kind of serious pressure on him to force him to turn his back on the best support network that any politician could have asked for. Still, the PC’s were slowly gaining in the polls and someone must have started to believe that Brown would win. He had to go!
Fifteen years of Liberal rule has resulted in what looks like PC incompetence. I don’t think so! No party can be that incompetent when the ruling party is handing them all the tools to win. It would seem a lot more plausible that the backroom lobbyists that pull the strings on the PC party, somehow had more to gain by having the Liberals win. Follow the money folks! And guess what? Even a guy as strong as Doug Ford may not be able to change this party, without removing the puppet masters in the back room whose mission it seems, is another Liberal victory.