Political DNA is dominating the PC leadership race. Is it bad for democracy?
Caroline Mulroney starred in a town hall event this week to kick off her bid to lead the Ontario Tories in the June election — but her dad, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, stole much of the spotlight.
Some supporters in the crowd liked her precisely because she grew up at 24 Sussex Drive, while others said her lineage had nothing to do with their endorsement.
But all who spoke to the Star mentioned the elder Mulroney at the outset and without prompting.
“I don’t know her very well but I heard that she’s the daughter of Brian Mulroney, and I like Brian Mulroney . . . I think (the) daughter must be influenced by daddy,” said Helen Kim.
The 67-year-old woman immigrated to Canada from South Korea in the 1970s, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister.
“He’s Justin Trudeau’s father,” Kim not- ed and laughed.
The Trudeaus are Canada’s most prominent political dynasty, the only fatherson duo elected to the country’s highest office. It’s plausible the Mulroneys are next. Caroline Mulroney has two challengers thus far: Doug Ford, ex-city councillor and brother of late mayor Rob Ford, and Christine Elliott, a former MPP and wife of late federal and provincial finance minister Jim Flaherty.
That effectively makes the race to replace former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown a three-way contest between dynastic candidates — who tend to get a major leg up in the electoral arena, experts say.
The top Tory spot became available late last month when Brown abruptly resigned following accusations of sexual misconduct. He has denied the allegations.
Dynastic candidates offer a familiar brand that sticks out because voters already know, or think they know, what the candidate stands for based on their famous relatives, said Jonathan Malloy, chair of Carleton University’s political science department.
“That is a big shortcut for candidates struggling to get noticed,” Malloy said. “Family relationships can certainly give candidates a head start because they can tap into or expand pre-existing networks, contacts and donors.”
The Ford clan is well-known in Toronto. Ford’s dad, Doug Sr., was an MPP in the 1990s in the Mike Harris government, and ex-prime minister Stephen Harper once thanked matriarch Diane Ford for “giving us this great Conservative political dynasty.”
“When you get a name like Mulroney or Ford, they’re immediately recognizable. They have a brand,” said historian John English, prominent biographer of Canadian first ministers and a former Liberal MP elected in 1993, the same year Brian Mulroney exited politics.
As a successful lawyer, businesswoman, philanthropist and mother of four, Caroline Mulroney makes a strong candidate. But political scientists and pundits argue the electoral rookie would not be in contention for the leadership and the province’s top post without the Mulroney name.
“People remember (Caroline) as attractive and articulate and well-educated. She’s got all those qualities that her father had, and her mother had — obviously she was born into politics,” English said.
He said politics is becoming less rooted in local communities and, at least when it comes to leadership, more about the celebrity factor. So it’s “remarkable” Mulroney lives in Forest Hill in Toronto (currently represented by the Liberals) and is running in the rural Tory bastion of York-Simcoe.
“That would never happen. The branding is trumping everything,” he said.
Mulroney was acclaimed with much fanfare last year to run for MPP in the riding north of Toronto. She also owns a home in the district in Georgina.
Debbie Salmons lives in the riding and said she’s backing Mulroney “because of her background, not just her lineage or her name, but her character and what she’s accomplished.”
“I don’t think she should be penalized for being related to someone that was famous before,” Salmons said at the town hall. “It’s not her fault, but it’s not a fault-finding thing, it actually gives her intuition.”
Christine Elliott’s political resume and relatively loose family ties arguably make her the least dynastic of the three.
She decided not to take her husband’s last name, but did take his seat — Elliott replaced Flaherty as MPP for the Whitby area in a 2006 byelection when he moved to the federal government. She then launched two unsuccessful PC leadership bids and after losing to Patrick Brown in 2015, she quit politics and took an appointment as Ontario’s first patient ombudsman.
“(Elliott) really cultivated and built up her own career and profile completely separate from Mr. Flaherty,” Malloy said.
Political kin resonate strongly with parties and the electorate because they offer something familiar, especially at a time when the public’s trust in democratic institutions seems to be waning, said Myer Siemiatycki, a political science professor at Ryerson.
“The brand and name power of a line of leaders and political figures seems to have clout . . . whether it’s a comfort factor, whether it’s deferential,” he said.
It’s not surprising that sons and daughters of politicians follow in their parents’ footsteps or see the public service as a worthwhile career. Mulroney, Ford and Elliott say political talk was often served at the family dinner table.
They may win or lose in democratic elections, but dynastic candidates have a clear advantage that average citizens do not.
That’s troubling, Siemiatycki said. “A democracy should include equal opportunity for political voice and political role.”
Mike Morden, research director at democracy think tank Samara Canada, said, generally, dynasties may signal a party struggling to bring fresh voices into the camp.
“On the one hand, you want to see new people in politics. On the other hand, it’s probably not a path that’s open to a lot of people to go straight to the top,” Morden said.
Mulroney’s ascent has rubbed some grassroots Tories the wrong way.
“I know Caroline Mulroney has lots of personal accomplishments but it would be naive to suggest that the push by a lot of the PC party insiders to anoint Mulroney is not a reflection of her political pedigree and what her father’s accomplishments are,” said Russell Hillier, son of Ontario PC MPP Randy Hillier. Russell Hillier currently lives in Calgary and isn’t voting in the PC leadership race.
The veteran, author and teacher said he is “really proud” of his dad but never felt pressure or desire to follow him into the political fray.
“Would I consider it? At this stage, no,” he said. “Family members see the demands of public life and a lot of the internal machinations of politics, and they’d rather not get involved.”
There are other disadvantages for political offspring. They tend to make easier targets for opponents to attack their experience and paint them with an entitled brush, said Tom Flanagan, Harper’s ex-campaign manager.
“Nobody would be taking (Caroline) seriously as a leadership contender if her name wasn’t Mulroney,” Flanagan said, adding that, “there was an amazing loyalty to her father among the old Conservative party when I jumped in.”
“Having a name can get you in the door and out of the gate, but then you have to perform. This is the risk for somebody who has a name and not the experience. It’s a real gamble to trade entirely on name,” he said.
Other notable political kids tend to get their legislative feet wet before gunning for the top job.
Justin Trudeau won a tough nomination battle in the Montreal riding of Papineau before serving as an MP and then chief Liberal. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, daughter of erstwhile NDP leader and MLA Grant Notley, sat in the legislature for about seven years before becoming first minister.
“The political apprenticeship is quite important for everybody whether you have the name or not. I’m not saying Caroline Mulroney can’t win, but she now has to demonstrate that she can actually do it,” Flanagan said.
Mulroney has been quick to point out her dad left the Hill when she was 19, and she has carved her own path since. She’s also being positioned as the voice of generational change.
“It’s been 25 years and I’ve been working hard building a life and a family,” she said during a friendly Q&A at her town hall. Mulroney’s campaign said she was unavailable to answer questions for this story. “I take a lot of what I learned from my time in Ottawa and what he taught me,” she said. “My name is Caroline . . . I’m bringing my own experience, and my own perspective into this.”
Ford disagrees he’s part of a political royal family.
“I think we have a great last name,” he said. “We’re average people just trying to help the common folks and that’s it. We are definitely,100 per cent, not a dynasty.”
Elliott said she and Flaherty “obviously talked about politics a lot.”
“We came at it from slightly different perspectives . . . We didn’t disagree on the big things,” she said. “I’m proud of my husband Jim’s accomplishments . . . but I really see my career as being different and being my own.”
With the clock winding down to the general election, the next Tory chief will have to learn the ropes quickly. The party will announce its captain March 10, with roughly three months to go before the June 7 vote.
So it makes sense that dynastic candidates have emerged given the hurried nature of the PC leadership contest, said Malloy. “Candidates have little time to build a profile . . . so those that already have one possess a clear head start.”