{"id":19868,"date":"2018-02-16T10:07:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T15:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19868"},"modified":"2018-02-16T10:07:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T15:07:07","slug":"front-porch-perspective-where-does-the-pc-party-of-ontario-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-where-does-the-pc-party-of-ontario-go-from-here\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Where does the PC Party of Ontario go from here?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know that it is a gross understatement to suggest that a lot has transpired over the past few weeks in the life of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Ontario.
\nAs someone who has been a volunteer member of the PC Party for the last 34 years and knows a number of the main characters in this drama, it has been tough watching the events play out as they did.
\nA lot of ink has already been spilt surrounding the saga, so I will instead concentrate on where that Party goes from here.
\nI believe that the Party did the right thing by calling a leadership vote among all party members. If the Party executive had voted the other way, I would not have liked it, but I would have been able to live with Interim Leader Vic Fedeli leading us into the next election.
\nI have had the privilege of working with Mr. Fedeli since he was first elected to Queen\u2019s Park in 2011. The successful entrepreneur and former North Bay Mayor is a great guy. He is intelligent; well-spoken and has a good sense of humour. He was an extremely capable energy and also finance critic. His \u201cFildeli on Finance\u201d e-mail newsletters are must reads for me.
\nIn the end, the purported 200,000 members of this party have the right to elect the leader. There are those who think that we should adhere to the 32 elected MPPs unanimous support of Interim leader Vic Fedeli and not hold a leadership vote. They say that these folks are on the front lines. These MPPs do represent us well, but the very foundation of this party is its members. They should decide.
\nThe leadership rules have now been posted. The Party will chose a Leader on March 10.
\nAccording to a number of different published reports, this is what we know:
\nThe votes will be cast electronically between March 2 and March 8, and the results will be announced March 10.
\nThere will be no delegated convention. Every party member has the right to vote.
\nUnder the rules, leadership candidates must submit their paperwork and $100,000 in fees and deposits by the February date, with another $25,000 due later to access the party\u2019s membership list.
\nThe document says each candidate\u2019s campaign spending cannot exceed $750,000.
\nOntario residents who wish to help select the new Tory leader must become party members by that same date.
\nFor the purpose of apportioning ballot results among the candidates, each Electoral District shall be assigned up to 100 Electoral Votes. Upon the completion of a ballot, the votes cast in each Electoral District shall be counted. If 100 or fewer votes have been cast, each candidate shall receive Electoral Votes equal to the number of votes cast for the candidate. Otherwise, each candidate shall receive Electoral Votes equivalent to the percentage of votes cast for the candidate.
\nA candidate receiving more than half of the Electoral Votes province-wide is elected the Leader. On a ballot, the candidate receiving the lowest number of electoral votes and any candidate receiving less than 10% of electoral votes shall not proceed to the next ballot.
\nOne of the key issues is what do we do with the Party\u2019s election platform, called the \u201cPeople\u2019s Guarantee\u201d. As you may recall, back in November at the Etobicoke Congress Centre this platform was unveiled to great fanfare.
\nThere are five key tenants to the platform: 22.5% lower income taxes for middle class, 75% refund of child care expenses, 12% further cut to hydro rates, largest commitment to mental spending in Canadian provincial history on mental health, and a Trust, Integrity and Accountability Act.
\nThere are a large number of people in the party who don\u2019t like the carbon tax, among other election planks.
\nOn page eight of the Leadership rules document it states, \u201cNo person shall be a candidate unless he or she supports the aims, principles, and objectives of the Party and the policy resolutions adopted at the Constitutionally-mandated 2017 policy process, and so confirms in the prescribed form.\u201d
\nEven though the Party wants each of the candidates to abide by the platform, the rules state there will be at least one debate among the candidates.
\nThis doesn\u2019t make much sense to me.
\nIf candidates must follow the platform, then why are we delaying the leadership vote to March?
\nIf we aren\u2019t going to discuss policy and it is simply a beauty contest, then why not get on with it?
\nWhy not just mail out a ballot with say 10 or 15 names on it and tell everyone that you have two weeks to mail it back in. The Party could give each candidate the opportunity to include a glossy brochure in the package.
\nI have a feeling though, that someone like Doug Ford, former Toronto City Councillor and brother of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who has announced his intention to run, will break with his pledge and re-ignite a vociferous debate on some or all the planks of the existing platform.
\nI will be watching the next few weeks with great interest.<\/p>\n

Stephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville I know that it is a gross understatement to suggest that a lot has transpired over the past few weeks in the life of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Ontario. As someone who has been a volunteer member of the PC Party for the last 34 years and knows a number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5as","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 16:52:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}