Patrick Brown: a man with no plans
Patrick Brown is riding high as he nears the second anniversary of his election as leader of the Ontario Conservatives.
His party is well ahead of the ruling Liberals and the New Democrats in the polls, he’s kept the party’s vocal right-wing fringe largely in check, and he’s succeeded in boosting the party’s fundraising efforts.
If Brown can avoid a major scandal or mistake, then the Conservatives could well be headed to a majority victory in the election set for June 7, 2018.
Not bad for a man who was a virtual unknown when he entered the Tory leadership race, but who won it easily on May 9, 2015.
But serious doubts about Brown’s leadership hang over the Tories. He’s still largely unknown, with polls showing some 45 per cent of Ontarians “don’t know” enough about him even to say whether they approve or disapprove of him. He also has a troubling habit of flip-flopping on some of the big issues of the day, such as the new sex-education curriculum.
A huge problem is his lack of policies. Indeed, he’s a man seemingly with no plans. While Brown can’t yet be described as a train wreck when it comes to policy specifics, he’s done little to dispel the impression that he’s unprepared to be premier. Obviously, the main job of an Opposition leader is to oppose the governing party’s policies, not to present a stream of different policies. Still, Brown’s lack of policy specifics to date on almost every major issue facing the province is stunning.
On hydro, Brown said in March that “in the near future” he would detail fixes to curb soaring rates. But then he backtracked, saying only that his plans for hydro will be ready by the next election. Indeed, some of Brown’s attempts to show he even understands the hydro issue are shocking.
“An unmitigated disaster” is how Michael Taube, a former speech writer for Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, described Brown’s almost incoherent eight-minute chat about hydro rates on a Toronto radio talk show in March.
On housing, Brown is demanding Wynne take action to cool home prices, but doesn’t have any program of his own.
He talks vaguely of “cutting red tape” to speed construction and the need to collect information on vacant properties. He also wants Queen’s Park to form an expert panel to study the real estate market, which is the standard political cop-out when leaders have no clue themselves on what to do.
On health care, Brown says he would kill the new Patients First Act that eliminates Community Care Access Centres, which oversee home and community care, and gives more power to the province’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks. But Brown won’t or can’t say what he would do to improve health care.
On education, Brown wants a province-wide halt on all school closures. Some 600 schools may be closed in the next year. His plan to keep schools open is anyone’s guess.
On autism services, Brown is demanding the Liberals provide more resources for students with autism. But he doesn’t have any plan on how to do it other than have the government put more cash into existing services.
Similarly, Brown has no detailed policies on taxes, the economy or infrastructure. In effect all he is saying is taxes need to be controlled, the economy must grow and infrastructure spending needs to increase. Brown has always claimed he won’t impose policy on the party. Rather, he wants policies to be developed by grassroots party members. To that end, the party will hold a two-day policy conference starting Nov. 25 at the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke near Pearson Airport. All their website says is “Stay tuned for more information in the near future.”
Until then, the party has set up a website, forontario.ca, where anyone can submit policy suggestions, recruited volunteer policy experts to work with elected MPPs on issues such as health reform and ordered each Tory riding association to hold their own policy development meetings.
They’re all designed as feel-good efforts to make card-carrying Conservatives believe they actually have a say in establishing party policy, which of course they likely don’t.
But that’s not leadership. True leadership means developing and championing policies that provide a real alternative to existing government programs. It means offering voters more than empty promises of better days to come without also offering a clear path forward.
Brown has done none of that in his two years as Conservative leader. It’s questionable whether he will have done so by the time voters go to the polls in June 2018.