How could things possibly get worse for Ontario PCs? Read on

The appetite of the Ontario PCs for chaos, and their fertility in supplying it, is matchless. Only two weeks ago I mused that they had outdone themselves, that as the Scottish lord in the play put it: “Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.”

How else to describe a party leader doomed under the cloud of zeal the world knows as #MeToo, the party president out the door a few days later, and a leadership convention instantly called even as (unofficially) they had already begun campaigning for the next election under a platform crafted by the leader just now resigned/ deposed? A herd of cats was in the wool basket, the air a blizzard of lint. How could things get worse?

How unimaginative of me. The Ontario branch of Fate may sometimes be overworked but it is never exhausted. A mere two weeks on, beyond all anticipation, the labyrinthine toils of the PC party are more tangled than ever.

The original CTV report that exploded Patrick Brown’s career and leadership has been severely perforated. Acts of journalism that might have been, and surely should have been undertaken earlier, have — at the very least — blunted the edge of some of its sharpest and most distasteful implications. For example, one of the accusers was not, as originally stated, either in high school or underage during the alleged behaviour — a not insignificant detail in conditioning the early public and party response to his reputed behaviour.

Even more striking, Mr. Brown himself, having so abruptly left the field, and either in shock or shame remained largely silent and invisible, blisteringly returned a few days ago, firing salvos at CTV and promising to sue over its (his view) sloppy or mendacious reporting. He roundly rejected the accusations that were levelled against him without warning or real notice, branded them outright “lies” and declared he is determined to “clear his name.” This is Brown as Ontarians have not seen him: Brown Agonistes.

And if Brown’s resurgence in a campaign for his good name does not churn the whirlpool into wilder frenzies, how about this for a cap: On Friday afternoon, Mr. Brown brought out the howitzer. He is now joining the four who are hoping to get his recent job, as a candidate for that same job himself. Patrick Brown is running to replace himself. The Tory leadership will now offer more awkwardness and potentially even more crass dialogue (if such be possible) than the wretched Real Housewives of Toronto.

It has been said of old that if you placed 24 monkeys in a room with 24 typewriters and gave them enough time they would eventually write the complete Shakespearean opus. And those clever little baboons just might. But infinite monkeys and an eternity of time would never suffice to write the script for this PC leadership. We will now have the spectacle of Mr. Brown on stage with four others — at least two of whom have under questioning held fire on whether they would even welcome him back into the party should his name be cleared.

Brown’s return alters the entire character of the race. It will be as much, or more, a review of the “scandal” and Patrick Brown’s personal character, as it will be an evaluation of the leadership potential of the candidates. It will be just as much about how the party treated him following the now contentious bombshell report as about defeating Kathleen Wynne. Members angry over Brown’s treatment now have a wide stage to make themselves heard, and they will.

How does this situate a party that many think threw away the past two provincial elections going into its third?

How can a party that looks to be performing a messy autopsy on its own corpse, which appears to be dicing its own image with a cleaver, and importing soap-operalevel melodrama into every one of its operations, make any generous, inspiring appeal to be the group to replace Kathleen Wynne and govern Ontario? If Brown wins, the past three weeks have been useless farce. If he doesn’t, can the party even offer prayers for unity? Just one odd thought: I wonder how Caroline Mulroney feels now about her decision to run?

Finally, a word on process. There have been many declarations of the obvious on the nature of due process; that it does not apply either to a political party, or to the public forming an opinion. That it is intended strictly for the courtroom during the exercise of a trial. And so it is. But there is a vast span between legal due process and counselling that it is best to wait at least until the dust settles on a story before engaging in full, negative judgment. To give at least a little time and cool judgment before taking action that blasts an entire career, wrecks a reputation and upsets the political balance of a province on the verge of a general election.

Facebook postings or anonymous Twitter claims are not the voicings of infallible providence. The #MeToo movement may have some virtues, but it is also precipitant, angry, traffics far too easily in hearsay, and has a structural censoriousness that intimidates many from full examination of its many claims. Merely to state or claim a wrong has been done is not to prove it, and when wrecked careers and personal ostracism are the consequence of such claims, perhaps some halt on judgment, and more thorough testing of claims even outside a courtroom would provide a semblance of just balance in such cases.

Not just for PCs. I see Jagmeet Singh offered full endorsement of the claims against Peter Stoffer. I have no idea of the merits, pro or con of those claims, any more than those against Brown. But could not Mr. Singh afford some little space and time to an MP, who until last week, was seen as honourable in character, and was for two full decades a respected MP, before ordering the headstone for his reputation? And could not the Tories have at least waited to catch their breath, and exercise a little cool reflection before tumbling into the morass of confusion and cross purpose they now find themselves in?

I do not know who Kathleen Wynne’s patron saint is, but that winged overseer is at the very top of his game.