Brown begins uphill battle for attention
In first major public speech, PC leader shares motivations for entering political scene
“We can make real change happen through politics.” PATRICK BROWN PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE LEADER
Patrick Brown is confronting his lack of renown as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives.
“You’ve probably been wondering before coming here today, who the heck is Patrick Brown? And you’re not alone,” he said Monday, kicking off a luncheon speech to a business crowd at the Economic Club of Canada.
It was the first major speech to a gathering outside the party for Brown, who, like most opposition leaders, fights an uphill battle for attention and is trying to build his profile leading up to the 2018 election.
There were no TV cameras or radio microphones, but four reporters did show up to keep watch.
“For events like this, it’s an opportunity to tell the story about what motivates you and what makes you tick,” Brown said after the speech.
“Anyone crazy enough to be working 7 a.m. to midnight and going to endless events, what’s your motivation?”
In a 25-minute address to about 200 people at a downtown hotel, the 37-year-old former Barrie city councillor and MP, who was elected PC leader in May, said he first got interested in politics as a teen because of the 1991acid rain treaty negotiated with the U.S. by former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
“We can make real change happen through politics,” Brown told the audience, inadvertently borrowing a slogan used by Justin Trudeau in the recent federal campaign that vaulted him from third-party leader to the Prime Minister’s Office.
“I don’t recall using that exact line,” Brown, who was first elected to Bar- rie council at age 22 and spent $2 million to win the PC leadership, told reporters later. “I actually think politics is a noble calling.”
He took aim at Premier Kathleen Wynne’s administration for the partial privatization of Hydro One, rising electricity prices, lost manufacturing jobs, red tape, credit rating downgrades and a pending price on carbon emissions under a cap-andtrade system.
“The Liberals aren’t addressing the core problem of wasting too much and saving too little. Instead they’re raising taxes and selling assets,” Brown said, calling on Wynne to heed public opinion polls and keep Hydro One in public hands.
“If the government was to backtrack on the sale I’d be the first to applaud them,” he added in the speech, promising to be constructive and not make “political hay.”
“Sometimes opposition parties fall into the rut of only being negative.”
With his predecessor as leader, MPP Tim Hudak, at the lunch along with many PC caucus members, Brown made a point of saying the party fares far better in urban areas, which they would need to win a majority after being “essentially shut out” in the 2014 election.
“The election results speak for themselves,” Brown said. “The results were so unfortunate, the party had missed a mark when the province was searching for change.”