Forget Patrick Brown: Elliott’s looking toward premiership

Christine Elliott has her eyes on a bigger prize.

The Progressive Conservative MPP is looking past the May 9 leadership vote toward the 2018 election because she believes she’s the only one who can topple Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.

With the leadership contest coming down to the wire, Elliott is striving to sound more like a premier in waiting than a candidate trailing insurgent challenger Patrick Brown.

“When I see Kathleen Wynne deciding to sell off 60 per cent of Hydro One with no coherent plan for Ontario’s energy sector and no regard for the hydro debt she’s leaving behind, I get angry,” the Whitby-Oshawa MPP told about 150 people at a Canadian Club luncheon.

Elliott, who debates Brown at TV Ontario on Thursday, did not mention the Barrie MP by name.

Instead, she focused on what the Tories, who have lost four elections in a row to the Liberals, need to do to defeat Wynne.

“Kathleen Wynne’s budget fails Ontarians by mortgaging our children’s future — our debt is set to increase to $325 billion by 2018. That is $23,000 of debt attached to each and every person living in Ontario,” said Elliott.

“As premier of Ontario, I will conduct a line-by-line analysis of government spending — we need to make sure taxpayers’ dollars are delivering real value for Ontarians,” she said.

The 60-year-old widowed mother of three grown sons trails Brown, a 36-year-old bachelor, in selling PC memberships. Only those who purchased $10 Tory cards can vote for a permanent successor to ex-leader Tim Hudak.

Still, her campaign is mindful of the fact the Liberals view Elliott, a centrist, as a more formidable opponent than Brown, who has aligned himself with social conservatives.

Liberal insiders have told the Star they respect Brown’s organizational abilities, especially his deftness at courting Ontario’s diverse communities, but they plan to highlight his pro-life views if he wins.