{"id":8368,"date":"2014-10-01T14:57:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8368"},"modified":"2014-10-18T23:26:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:26:26","slug":"front-porch-perspective-next-steps-for-pcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-next-steps-for-pcs\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Next Steps for PCs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Provincial PC Party of Ontario: Next Steps
\nBy Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the recent provincial electoral debacle in which the provincial Tories snatched victory \u2013 or at least a good opportunity at victory \u2013 from the proverbial jaws of defeat, it is time for the party to get off the mat and move forward.
\nThe executive of the party is proposing to choose a new leader next May.
\nWhile a new leader is obviously required since former leader Tim Hudak stepped down in July, the timing for this is wrong.
\nThere are a lot of party volunteers who are not happy with what happened during the election campaign or the direction that the party seems headed in.
\nAs the Liberals have a solid majority with no election until 2018, the PC Party has a chance to reflect and recalibrate.
\nWhat they should be doing, not holding a leadership yet but a province-wide crying and bitching session so members can \u2013 collectively – get all the bile out of their system.
\nThe PC Party should arrange a convention. Charge any party member or anyone who wants to attend $20 and then meet in a hockey arena or hotel room somewhere around the GTA. Hopefully, maybe 1,000 to 2,000 people would attend such an event. This would begin the healing process.
\nIt would be a good idea at such a meeting that the Vice President responsible for policy, in conjunction with the Party President, lay out a timetable for real policy debate and development over the next few years.
\nThere should be meetings within the local riding associations where policy resolutions are first developed and then slowly prioritized and refined over the coming years so that we don\u2019t have the faith-based platform problem again or the 1 Million Jobs fiasco that we had in the last provincial election.
\nParty members need to feel that they are actually part of the process and that they are being heard.
\nAlthough I would have liked to see serious policy development begin before the leadership process has started, this is now not possible.
\nAt least one of the declared leadership candidates, North Bay PC MPP and former finance and energy critic Vic Fedeli has provided some initial things for party members to think about.
\nLast month, he proposed five constitutional amendments that would address the following.<\/p>\n

Clarify the Leader\u2019s Role in the Constitution
\nElection Platform Ratification
\nLeadership Review
\nPrivate, Democratic Balloting
\nMembership Represented in Caucus<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a brief look at number two on his list \u2013 Election Platform Ratification.
\nI agree 100% with what Mr. Fedeli wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver several losing election campaigns we have had the repeated issue of policy surprises in the party election platform. Despite assurances of \u2018no surprises\u2019 in the most recent campaign, we were again caught off guard by the contents of the platform.
\n\u201cCaucus members most of all must stand behind the election platform and support it during the campaign. This is a difficult task if the majority of Caucus does not believe in its direction or cannot support its major planks. Caucus must have the confidence of knowing the planks of the election platform that it will be called upon to support.
\n\u201cSimilarly, the Policy Committee of the Party was set up to provide a link between the Leader and Caucus and the Political Advisory Councils; its job is to ensure that the policies approved by the membership through the policy development process are respected. The Leader is ultimately responsible for the election platform, its contents, style, and strategy. This is necessary in order for the Leader to best lead the Party and fight the campaign. A good leader with a good platform will not have trouble gaining support for that platform by Caucus and by the Policy Committee.
\n\u201cThe Leader must therefore have the election platform ratified by the Caucus and by the Policy Committee of the party before it is released to the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adopting this Constitutional Amendment would be a good start to regaining the trust of the rank and file and also to rebuilding enthusiasm within the provincial PC Party.<\/p>\n


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

Provincial PC Party of Ontario: Next Steps By Stephen Somerville After the recent provincial electoral debacle in which the provincial Tories snatched victory \u2013 or at least a good opportunity at victory \u2013 from the proverbial jaws of defeat, it is time for the party to get off the mat and move forward. The executive […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2aY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 14:45:03","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\/8368","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=8368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}