John Stall

It seems to me that the Conservative party of Ontario has a double dilemma to deal with in the wake of the election results when it comes to whether or not John Tory should stay or go. The questions being asked by the party executive, rank and file and by fundraisers of the P.C Ontario fund are:

Can a leader who demonstrated such bad judgment by insisting on a policy that was clearly an election killer and by choosing to run (and lose) in a risky riding, regain and sustain the genuine respect that got him there in the first place? Because in business, (as Tory made his mantra) those who don’t show results or bad judgment should be replaced.

The dilemma for the party decision makers and fundraisers is that if it concludes the guy who can’t deliver the goods should go, with whom do they replace him? Who is the alternative candidate who can strike the balance between the extreme wing of the party and the centre (as Tory could)?

The knee-jerk reactors of the party may be the first to want Tory out, but I suspect the big thinkers will conclude that in the absence of an alternative at this point, John Tory is probably still their best hope against a likely new liberal leader in the next election. It may take a “mea culpa” promise from Tory to bury the school funding issue forever, in addition to a strong commitment from him to include more people from all ranks of the party when it comes to setting policy – assuming he still wants the prize of Premier enough to endure the next four years of humble pie in opposition…stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.