Tory turmoil has all parties feeling tainted
Liberals, NDP say voters feel ‘pretty cynical’ about politicians
The controversy roiling the Progressive Conservatives is not a source of joy for the Liberals or New Democrats — even with the June 7 election fast approaching.
“This is bad for all of us,” a high-ranking Liberal insider confided this week of the PC saga transfixing the province since former leader Patrick Brown was forced to resign Jan. 25 amid allegations of sexual impropriety.
“If General Motors’ marketing plan was ‘Fords crash and will kill you,’ that’s bad for the entire car industry. Well, this is bad for politics.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath agreed Friday that “people are feeling pretty cynical about politics in Ontario right now.”
“They have a deep sense of disappointment. The (Progressive) Conservative party is in no shape to govern itself, let alone our great province,” said Horwath, mindful that the current climate presents an opportunity for the New Democrats.
The trouble is that the Brown soap opera — widening to include questions about his personal finances and suspect membership numbers — is hogging so much media attention that it’s hard for other parties and PC leadership candidates to get their messages out.
“This certainly isn’t the time to be distracted by one person’s problems,” leadership candidate Caroline Mulroney said Friday, urging Brown to drop out of the March 10 race for his old job after being kicked out of caucus at Queen’s Park.
Liberal MPP Deb Matthews, co-chair of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s re-election campaign, said she finds “the whole thing very troubling.”
“I don’t think anybody is enjoying this. It’s not good for democracy when we’ve got this kind of activity going on in a party that had a proud history in this province. That’s disappointing for us all,” Matthews said.
PCs privately fear they could, once again, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after four straight electoral losses to the Liberals in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014, under three different leaders.
“By the time we head to the polls in June, it will have been 19 years since we’ve won an election,” Mulroney noted. “This is the time for a new generation to take the reins, a generation of leadership that can finally do what the past generation couldn’t — win.”
During the 2015 leadership race, Brown hammered the party’s old guard, vowing to avoid self-inflicted wounds such as former leader John Tory’s promise to fund faith-based schools and Tim Hudak’s pledge to cut 100,000 public-sector jobs.
Yet Brown himself has triggered a leadership race at a time when the party had hoped to be gearing up to topple the Liberals, not fighting a civil war.
“Any leadership contest is divisive and we’re seeing that this time,” said Tory MPP Todd Smith, a co-chair of Christine Elliott’s leadership bid.
“This one may be more divisive than most, just given the time constraints that we’re dealing with here and the accusations that have been hurled,” he said.
Asked about Brown’s uphill rerun for the leadership amid damaging allegations, Smith said “he’s incredibly competitive. He’s almost too competitive at times.
“The chips are going to fall March 10. And we’ll have to pick up those chips and try and make the best of it behind our new leader and move forward into the election.”
Still, the danger of “a pox on all their houses” hovers over all three major parties.
“You want politicians to have a lot of integrity and you want them to have enough integrity to temper their own ambitions,” said Christo-
“This (leadership contest) may be more divisive than most just, given the time constraints . . . and the accusations.” TODD SMITH CO-CHAIR OF CHRISTINE ELLIOTT’S LEADERSHIP BID
pher Cochrane, author and political science professor at the University of Toronto.
After all the dust settles, if Brown cannot shake the allegations against him, “then that does do more damage to the view of politicians being utterly untrustworthy.”
At the same time, “if the party was willing to get rid of him, and potentially lose the next election because he was not up to their ethical standards . . . that reflects relatively well on them. That’s the silver lining.”
The PCs also have a longer-term “structural problem” to deal with — the huge divide between rank-andfile members and the party establishment.
“It’s a bit of a mystery” how to get past that, Cochrane said, given the further chasm with a vocal Brown constituency that backs him despite the mounting allegations.
“The best answer I can give is lead- ership — where the hope is they can find somebody who is a strong enough leader to tie all the loose ends together.”
Even before Brown quit Jan. 25, an Ottawa-area PC activist was working on “I’m Out,” an underground movement with a website of the same name opposing the discredited former leader’s rule over the party.
“It’s an anti-corruption faction,” said Carlos Naldinho, the man behind the I’m Out website.
Naldinho said he’s taking a pause while the leadership race plays out, but said the aim of “taking back our PC party” remains the same — though working against candidates Brown installed may not be necessary after March 10.
“We’re optimistic a new leader will take care of that. I’d like to have something to do other than watching the dumpster fire.”
The other issue the PCs may also continue to struggle with is the onemember, one-vote in choosing a leader, versus the typical practice of sending delegates to a convention.
Cochrane agreed the one-vote system “tends to pull parties in more ideological directions” during leadership races, which can pull a party apart. However, amid increasing demand for people’s voices to be heard, “it’s hard to dial that back.”