Well, it’s about two week til the leadership review at the Ontario PC Party convention in London. The question on every Progressive Conservative’s mind is “Should we keep John Tory as our leader or dump him for a new one?”.
This need for a review stems from the disappointing election results last October. The problems that I saw with the PC campaign was:
- the introduction of the religious school question — to implement them somehow into the public system — which the Liberal (crafty people they are) used it to say that John Tory and PC Party were looking out for private interests instead of public one
- People feared that a John Tory government was going to reintroduce the “Common Sense Revolution” ideals (which everyone knew it was a disaster for the province) and the fact that several party members (on live television and at public events) said that John Tory “was going to bring back ‘common sense’ back to government in Ontario, which although was said with good intention and was not meant to refer to the “revolution” but people took it as if they were mentioning the policies of the Harris Government of 1995-2002
- There were not enough positive ads: all people saw, or believed that all they saw, were negative attack ads
Although the Ontario PC Party lost the election, and there are many things (policies, campaign strategies, etc) that need to be changed to attain victory in 2011, dumping John Tory is not one of them. Removing John Tory from the leadership will hurt the party and decrease our chances to win the next election in 2011. Here are the reason why we should keep John Tory as leader:
- He helped to wipe out the party’s huge debt in less than 4 years
- He helped to increase the party membership
- He ran several very successful businesses over the years and was accountable for all his actions as the head of those companies.
- He helped to revitalize the Canadian Football League and brought stability and growth to the league
- He is a good leader as he listens to the opinions and concerns of each and every Ontarian and his own party members and takes them into account when making a decision
- As he has brought integrity and accountability to his roles as CEO of a company and as leader of the PC Party, he will bring those to the Premier’s Office
So instead of dumping John Tory and creating an costly leadership race, the party should concentrate and focus on the next election and how we are going to significantly increase our chances of victory in 2011. A few things that I believe will help us reach that goal:
- Run positive political campaign ads/PPBs
- Show what we can do, instead of what the Liberals didn’t do or did wrong
- Present our accomplishments as a party — our tract record of progress, moving the province forward, and improving the lives of Ontarians — and show them how we can build on those to revitalize our province and continue to move forward.
So I hope the party will support John Tory and vote to keep him as our leader. Because together with John Tory we can reach our goal of victory in 2011 and bring progress to Ontario.
Nathaniel, John Tory re-branded the PC party in his image. Much as Tory has positive aspects to his character, he also is burdened with baggage that will guarantee a loss in 2011. Aside from anything else, the “faith-based” fiasco leaves him as damaged goods politically. Another leader with the ability to create enthusiasm could rise above it in 2011, but John has consistently shown he doesn’t have it in him.
You disparage Harris glibly, but miss the point. People would have run through walls for Harris, because he made them believe in something.
That’s LEADERSHIP, and it does MATTER! Harris made many mistakes in governing, but that didn’t matter because he had a vision that people bought into. People respected him for that.
Voters elected him for it.
In every instance where John Tory needed to show strength, he instead left the perception of weakness. That is why he won’t win in 2011.
Nathaniel, I agree with your point of view. The school funding issue has now cornered Mr. M. with the Afro-centric people requesting funding for their school. To fund one and not the other would not be a good thing. I think this has helped Mr. Tory’s case somewhat and should be brought forward at the Leadership Meeting. Mr. Tory’s plan regarding the social housing issue is a good one and can open the door to a lot of new votes for the party. He definitely should be given another chance. I believe that people are watching him now and making judgements about what type of Premier he would be and I think that they are seeing very positive signals.