Ontario A hotbed of political intrigue
Quebecers can watch events unfold in another province
It’s official. Ontario politics have overtaken Quebec in the crazy-but-true department. For now, anyway. There are four months to go before the next Ontario election, and all hell is breaking loose. Quebecers, feel free to grab some popcorn, pull up a lawn chair and enjoy the political intrigue going down in someone else’s province for a change.
In case you missed it, former Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown, who was forced to resign late last month after allegations of sexual misconduct by two women, has launched a political grenade into the field. Insisting that his name has been cleared, on Friday, he filed his leadership bid at the 11th hour to run as an independent (he was also kicked out of his party’s caucus) in the hotly contested PC race in an attempt to replace … himself.
There’s a lot at stake in the coming Ontario election. Dissatisfaction with Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal Party is high. The latest poll suggests that more than half of Ontarians would vote for the PCs in the next election.
This turn of events has left many observers scratching their heads. Within hours of CTV News airing the story, Brown’s entire senior staff resigned. The women say that when they were teenagers and Brown was a Conservative MP, he plied them with alcohol and made unwanted sexual advances while he himself remained sober. While none of the allegations made against Brown has been tested in court, the two women stand by their claims.
Brown continues to insist he did nothing wrong. There are reports that members of the Ontario PC caucus weren’t consulted about Brown’s expulsion and that he passed two lie detector tests. Brown has even tried to walk back his resignation, saying that the resignation letter was released without his permission, calling into question its validity. Other candidates vying for the party’s leadership include lawyer and businessperson Caroline Mulroney, former MPP and previous PC leadership candidate Christine Elliott, former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, and former executive director of Parents as First Educators (PAFE) Tanya Granic Allen. The winner will be announced on March 10.
Ontario eclipsing Quebec in the wacky politics arena is no small feat. With our language and identity politics, debates over sovereignty and ubiquitous large-scale street protests, politics in this province are notoriously hot — full of passion and intrigue, turmoil, excitement and larger-than-life political figures.
Not that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen elsewhere. When it comes to exciting provincial politics, Alberta and British Columbia have held their own over the last few years. But at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, Quebec’s provincial elections are the only ones in the country where the fate of the country is potentially at stake. It adds an extra layer of public interest. A certain je ne sais quoi, if you like.
Quebec recently had a little blip of political activity that got people talking. A handful of veteran Parti Québécois MNAs announced they would not run in the next election. Polls appear to show the Quebec Liberal Party dipping in popularity, while the Coalition Avenir Québec appears to be on the rise. But other than that, it’s more of the same.
The big story these days seems to be yet another round of anglophone scapegoating. Saturday’s edition of the Journal de Montréal published a Léger poll indicating that, among other things, 60 per cent of young Englishspeakers have thought about leaving the province. Some of their columnists have essentially replied “good riddance,” while others have taken a critical look at the anti-anglo rhetoric.
With all the drama unfolding next door in Ontario, political junkies looking for a fix will just have to head down the 401 to Toronto. For now, anyway.
Ontario eclipsing Quebec in the wacky politics arena is no small feat.