TORY RACE SHAPING UP
Mulroney to run for leader
TORONTO• The race to lead Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives took shape over the weekend, with one highprofile candidate poised to jump in, another backing out, and yet another holding a campaign kickoff.
A source with Caroline Mulroney’s campaign says the Toronto lawyer and businesswoman will officially announce her leadership bid on Monday, days after reports first emerged suggesting she was eyeing the party’s top job.
Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, was pegged as a contender to replace Patrick Brown as soon as the contest began, despite having never held political office.
Longtime party stalwart Rod Phillips, who had been touted as a possible leadership contender, announced Sunday night he was not entering the race, instead endorsing Mulroney.
Phillips is the former chair of Postmedia (which owns the National Post) and former president and CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
“It is more urgent than ever that we choose a leader who can unite our party, and defeat Kathleen Wynne,” Phillips wrote on Twitter. “I have concluded that Caroline Mulroney is the leader Ontario PCs need and I am committing my support to her. Caroline and I … represent a new generation of inclusive and accountable leadership for the Progressive Conservative Party.”
Mulroney, a lawyer and 43-year-old mother of four, was acclaimed as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the riding of York-Simcoe, north of Toronto, last August.
“It wasn’t her plan to seek the leadership, she was very, very focused on the riding and on the community and that’s where her efforts went,” said Peter Van Loan, a legislator with the federal Conservative Party who acted as an adviser to Mulroney.
“She has intrinsic strengths and intrinsic talents of her own, whatever her name may be.”
Mulroney’s entry into the race means there will be at least two high-profile women competing for the Tory reins, which could bolster the party’s image, said Kathy Brock, a policy expert and political science professor at Queen’s University. Former Tory legislator Christine Elliott threw her hat in the ring in the last week.
Brown and former party president Rick Dykstra resigned within days of each other after being confronted with separate allegations of sexual misconduct, which they deny.
Doug Ford officially launched his leadership bid with a rally in Toronto Saturday night, at which he outlined his platform, promising to keep taxes low, attract more business to the province, and reject a federally imposed carbon tax if elected as the next premier of Ontario.
“I will not support policies and taxes that make life more expensive,” Ford told a crowd of cheering supporters. “And if the Prime Minister tries to make us — well, in the words of his father — ‘Just watch me’ ”
The former Toronto city councillor also attacked current Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, criticizing what he called a disastrous energy policy, vanishing manufacturing jobs and rising taxes and costs in the province.
Ford, who was the first to officially announce his candidacy, says it’s time to wrest control of the party from “elites” and speak up for people he feels have been shortchanged by Wynne’s government.
Political observers say the combination of name recognition, a well-defined message and open disdain for an unpopular government mean Ford could mount a credible challenge for the leadership.
“Doug Ford can’t be underestimated in this race,” said Rob Leone, a former Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario legislature and current political science professor at Western University.
He said Ford has a leg up thanks to an established ground game and support organization, which could be key assets as leadership hopefuls scramble to meet a tight, five-week timeline. Voting to choose the new leader begins March 2, with results to be unveiled March 10.