Preville on Politics
How Badly Does Tory Want to be Premier?
Posted on December 5, 2007 by Philip Preville
John Tory fans will want to take a quick peek here. It’s a cute attempt to unseat Tory as leader of the PC Party of Ontario (and a misleading one since it suggests that the movement’s supporters include rock-solid Tory loyalists like MPP Joyce Savoline). Not that this is any surprise. Since the election, I’ve spoken to a few well-placed sources who were surprised that Tory announced he wanted to stay on as leader, given that Red Tories such as himself remain in the minority. (As one said to me, “That’s a real caveman caucus he’s got.”) One is betting that Tory will step down before the convention rather than go through the motions and walk away with a tepid vote of confidence.
A man of his ability and connections could certainly be doing something better with his time, like running the World Bank (which actually wouldn’t surprise me). But I’m betting that he’s in for the long haul, that he’ll find a way to bring the cavemen to heel. He wants to be premier badly. He’s still got some unfinished business, and I don’t think he can walk away from it.
Philip Preville
Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.
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demokrat December 8, 2007 at 7:31 p.m.
So some group of recycled Harrisites want to dump John Tory? Isn’t that ironic because it
was their left-over anti-public school policies that were hung around Tory’s neck as he dangled
in public.
If Ontario Conservatives think they can find a way to power by retaining or advancing
discredited policies, and if the PC membership lets them do it, their rejection by the voters of
Ontario is guaranteed in 2011.
Face up to it. Bill Davis handed Frank Miller a red hot poker with the deal to extend
funding to Catholic high schools, and everyone got burned. Then, when Ernie Eves struggled on
valiantly for tax credits to private schools, he got whumped by a guy no one thought could win.
So why was anyone really surprised when Ontario voters rejected the Tory proposition to offer
funding to religious schools?
If PCs want to represent the people of Ontario they are going to have to represent the
people of Ontario. Self-evident? Apparently not, as the party has impaled itself three times on the
same plank.
The way to get elected is to get on the other side of the Liberals on the issue of public
schools. McGuinty is stuck supporting Catholic schools and is open to criticism of favouritism.
Public opinion is running between 70 and 75% for a one school system. That support is from
non-Catholics, some immigrant groups, academia, and people for whom religion is a spent force.
It will take courage but either the PC party aligns with a winning combination or it
continues to flounder.
Replacing John Tory isn’t the answer. It requires getting the school issue right.