Partick Brown is the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.There have been concerns about Brown's "social conservativism" by some of his critics within the party, and it's something that has been grossly exaggerated by Liberal and NDP supporters.
I've met Brown on a few occasions during the campaign and had extensive conversations with his campaign leadership. Brown is smart, and only an idiot would focus on the social policies about which the fearmongers are screaming.
Brown's priorities will be economic stability and ending some of the nanny-state idiocy that Kathleen Wynne has been imposing on Ontario. Some of that has been Wynne's radical Sex Ed curriculum, the architect of which was convicted pedophile Ben Levin. But that doesn't mean Brown is opposed to Sex Ed. Ontario has had a successful Sex Education program since the mid-90's. There's no evidence that contemporary school kids are stumbling around in sexual confusion.
Gay Rights and abortion will not be touched by Brown. The hysterics who insist he'll be altering that don't seem to understand the role of the Premier in government and legislation. But even if Brown could do something about that, he wouldn't, for the simple reason that he's not insane, and to attack the status quo on those issues would be political suicide.
From discussions I've had with him, it's apparent that Brown also clearly understands the need to engage new constituencies and integrate new ideas in the Ontario Progressive Conservative party. He's not looking to pick a war with unions or anyone or thing other than the devastatingly bad, corrupt economic leadership that Kathleen Wynne and her predecessor Dalton McGuinty inflicted on Ontario.
The good news is that Ontarians can now look forward to an effective Opposition at Queen's Park. That's something Ontario hasn't had in four elections and is long overdue.
5 comments:
I'll be shocked if Wynne waits a full two weeks to dip into her war chest and launch an ad blitzkrieg to define Brown early and often.
And without a seat and heading an almost bankrupt party, he's virtually invisible. Who's going to defend him? Monte McNaughton?
Wynne isn't going to be able to spend enough money over a long enough period of time to accomplish what you're proposing. And you seem to discount the ability of the PCO to raise funds themselves over the next 3 years.
Wynne has gone from scandal-to-scandal and there's no reason to see any stop to that. She can try to deflect from that by relentless attacks on Brown, but at some point, people and the media will listen to what he has to say for himself. Brown is not only a better communicator and better politician than his predecessor, but he's a better communicator than Wynne. I know some people seem to think she's the greatest political mind of our lifetime, but she actually hasn't been up against a credible opponent - ever. Now we'll see what happens when she is.
You're missing the reason behind doing a huge early ad buy. You do it to define your opponent before he can define himself. Early impressions are nearly impossible to overcome.
I'm not talking about the next three years. I'm talking about the next three months, which are far more important.
The party hasn't got two nickles to rub together, so it can't introduce introduce Brown to the public. But I'm sure that the Liberals will be happy to.
And I'm not even mentioning the internal divisions in the party. Sue Ann Levy has been on a historic tear about Patrick this evening, and I can almost guarantee you that the caucus is going to take a "wait and see" attitude.
Whether your opponents are "credible" or not is immaterial. Shit, Harper only beat a crippled Paul Martin, Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff, but he's regarded with a healthy respect by the political community.
So you're saying all the social conservatives who joined the party to vote for Brown have been bamboozled?
You seem to think the formula is all that matters but aren't taking the individual politicians into account, and personality matters much more than policy in these contests.
Martin had Ad Scam, Liberal fatigue and his own lack of charisma to blame for his failings, it wasn't the brilliant Harper strategy.
As far as Dion goes, if the Liberals had set out to find the least capable party leader possible, I doubt they could have found anyone who fit that bill better than Stephane Dion. In Iggy's case, while being a very smart man, he was thoroughly inept as a politician.
You're also overestimating the importance to most Ontarians about the the issues that they will try to exploit. It'll sure get the Annex and Parkdale to vote against Patrick Brown, but much of the rest of the province won't give a shit.
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