A Commentary by Doug Draper
Just three days into a new session of the Ontario legislature, it is sounding more and more like Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak can hardly wait to get back on the campaign bus.
Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak with his wife Deb Hutton and daughter Miller on the campaign trail in the fall of 2011. Hudak seems determined to get back on that trail as soon as possible. File photo by Doug Draper
In a media release circulated this February 20, Hudak, who is also a Niagara, Ontario area MPP and was a cabinet minister in the former Conservative government of Mike Harris, declared that the only way the province is going to move in a “new direction”, is if it has a “new team” in charge at Queen’s Park.
“For Ontario to rise again, it’s clear we need to change the team that leads this province,” says the media release without coming right out and saying this time that the best ones to take over governance in Ontario are the Hudak Conservatives.
In attack ads and media releases, Hudak’s party has been throwing punches at Kathleen Wynne and her Liberals since the day she was chosen by a majority of her Liberal party delegates to replace by then-beleaguered premier Dalton McGuinty. Hudak and company have been slamming Wynne for not immediately laying out a detailed plan for cutting government spending, for (in their view) being one of McGuinty’s lackeys, and with continuing to cover up details on the decision by the McGuinty government to cancel controversial plans to build two gas-powered energy plant in Liberal-held ridings in the Greater Toronto area prior to the 2011 provincial election – a decision that cost the taxpayers of Ontario hundreds of millions of dollars and has put off the building of desperately needed energy generation capacity for the province’s future.
The Hudak Conservatives have taken to calling Wynne’s fledgling government “the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals” in an obvious effort to tar the new premier with all of McGuinty’s baggage before she has any real chance to get her own, more left-leaning show on the road.
Ontario’s NDP leader Andrea Horwath has seemed more willing cut Wynne a little time to chart a new path, although the NDP leader has made clear that new tone should include cuts in auto insurance rates for Ontario drivers and more aggressive moves to improve health and home care, and educational and job opportunities for the province’s young people.
Yet even Horwath, who holds the power to side with Hudak in a vote of non-confidence that would bring Wynne’s government down, all but lost it this February 21 during a question period that included an announcement from the government that it had suddenly found more internal documents linked to the gas-plant cancellation controversy.
At this question period, Horwath all but yelled out her that more documents have suddenly turned up now when the Liberals had previously said documents on the issue were already out, and Hudak retorted that the Wynne Liberals are looking more like the McGuinty Liberals all of the time. Watching her as she spoke, it was as if she was almost sorry that she was generous enough to give Wynne a benefit of the doubt that Hudak was hardly prepared to give from the beginning.
That leaves the question – how long is this minority government going to last before both the Conservatives and NDP get so fed up with the apparent effort to cover former premier McGuinty’s butt on the gas-plant decision that they agree together to pull the plug and leave the final verdict up to the Ontario voters.
Why Wynne did not come out immediately after she was chosen leader and say what almost everyone who can count to ten and recite the alphabet knows, and simply say; ‘Yes, Dalton McGuinty made a conscious decision to cancel those gas plant proposals before the last provincial election to save those Liberal seats,” may be a question political pundits ask for years to come if it leads to a quick rise and downfall of the first female premier in Ontario. Why did she simply not say that, as a cabinet minister where solidarity is paramount, she had the choice between agreeing with McGuinty’s decision or quitting and not being here today to chart a new course.
She might have said; ‘Look it is obvious that the decision to cancel those gas plants was politically motivated. But I am a new leader with a promise that as long as I am in charge, that kind of politics won’t happen again.”
It would have thrown McGuinty to the dogs, but what has McGuinty done for Wynne other than leave her to the dogs.
Get ready for the next Ontario election. It may be coming to a riding near you, sooner than you think.
(Niagara At Large encourages all visitors to this site to share their views on this post or any other posts NAL has posted. Divergent views are most welcome in the spirit of NAL’s goal to operate as a virtual town hall for discussing and debating issues of interest and concern to our communities and countries across the greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
I agree that there will likely be an election within the next few months. The revelation that not all documents related to the cancellation of the Mississauga and Oakville power plants had been brought forward pretty much guarantees an election.
The problem, as I have said here several times, is that there is no suitable choice of party to form the government!
Tim Hudak can jump up and down all he wants. HE IS NOT A LEADER! As someone who wants to vote conservative, I am appalled that the conservative party has not realized that as long as Hudak is leader, they will not form the government in Ontario.
The Liberals have clearly worn out their welcome – federally and provincially. I know that Liberals like to think of themselves as “the natural governing party,” but they are morally bankrupt.
The NDP proved they are not suitable as a government. Yes, I like the NDP as the official opposition. But after the disaster of Bob Rae as premier, the chances of Andrea Horwath becoming premier are slim. Andrea, like Bob Rae, is quite intelligent. The problem is that other than a few individual NDP MPPs, the party lacks the “bench strength” to govern effectively.
So …. if an election is called in the next few months, what do we do?
Perhaps if enough people voted for independent candidates in each riding, we might be rid of the pestilence that is the current party system.
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It took barely a week for Wynne to lose the respect of the few in the Niagara Region who thought she might not be as awful as McGuinty. Wynne’s “win” was a shade underhanded due to some in-house prevarication with regard to who was promised whose votes when the first round depleted the hopefuls. I’m not big on betting but odds are she will be the undoing of this stage of the Liberals existence. Even though the ones who get elected seem to never be the ones I thought may be the least of the worst, I try to be optimistic about every political change, sort of hoping for the best outcome yet bracing for the almost predictable let-down. Isn’t there a warning about how if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them? I have a few decades left to live and I am determined to keep hoping the good politicians will outnumber the bad.
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Great Article Doug
Politics are at best corrupt.
(1)The Grace Maternity in Toronto was saved by the Liberals to save that seat in a by election.
(2) The eHealth Scandal where a billion dollars flew out the window to “CONSULTANTS”
(3) The Privatization of Home Care that seen private interests literally eliminate the old and venerated VON
(4) The Cancellation of the Fort Erie Slots where people were put out of work in that community.
(5) The Hospital debacle in the Niagara Region where corporate entities seems to have prevailed over the common Folk.
(6) The expansion of the Sunshine list over the years while Ontario many common Ontario folk skimp and save.
(7) And Yes the Gas power plants in Oakville to save another seat.
This list could go on and on…….. ad nausea
BUT HUDAK ??????? NAUSEA and more NAUSEA as Mike HARRIS’s clone steps forward once again to re-start the slide into infamy
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Will, Patricia and Joseph, you have said it all.
My add – Splitting the vote, won’t get us anywhere other than another premature election because we all know these babies can’t get along.
I am at a loss (for a change). This is quite the conundrum. So what did I do. I looked up the current provincial political parties in Ontario. One jumped out at me “Reform Party of Ontario”. Now I don’t propose I know much about this party, however a lot of their platform is consistent with my thoughts on things. I guess their challenge is that they don’t have riding leaders, hence the reason they didn’t appear on the ballot last election.
So I guess in answer to your question “what are we to do?”, perhaps an alternative to creating yet another party perhaps an existing party exists that doesn’t have the baggage and sense of entitlement the big three have and we throw our support behind them. Before you guys beat up on me, I know I am not being realistic, but can you blame me for trying?
Just sayin….
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Why not try the Green Party, Melanie Mullin got more votes than the NDP in one election,.in Niagara Riding. at least they are a pragmatic bunch with many highly educated candidates to choose from. Tim Hudak made himself un-electable by embracing the dogma of the Alberta Conservatives.he should have taken a lesson from Bill Davis and his blue machine.The last election was his to lose, and he lost. Tim is still beating the same drum.
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The problem here Greg is the once Federal “Reform Party, taken over by Harper and Colin Brown’s gang managed to enlist the Old and Venerated Progressive Conservative Party’s Peter MacKay to merge with Harper and form the Conservative Party of today. This happened after Peter MacKay, needing David Orchard’s support to become leader of the PCs broke a written contract he made withDavid NOT to merge the Parties…….Do I trust The Federal Party that is NOW in POWER no damn way ever and MacKay even less.
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