There must be a rule for Conservative Party leaders in Ontario that, during an election campaign, they have to commit some form of political suicide. Ontario Conservative Leader Timmy Hudak came to Barrie last Friday and did the deed.
Timmy not only proved he is a failure in economics but that he must have also failed basic mathematics. Here he is promising 1,000,000 jobs for Ontario—without any plan to make it happen—but he wants to start by firing 100,000 provincial employees. While it might have been a bravura performance, it did not make any sense. Why he thinks 1,100,000 jobs will appear by magic instead of just 1,000,000 was never explained.
Timmy’s vision for Ontario really is a wonder. He never has made use of his degree in economics. In politics, he was an acolyte of former Premier Mike Harris. That should have been a lesson in what not to do but Timmy believes in the Harris way.
In 2009 when Timmy became leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, the party saw him as a new broom. They hoped he would be able to bring change and renewal to a stumbling political party. What they got was an ideologue in a time warp of an old and disproved economic theory. Timmy wants Ontario to be a right-to-work area as a bottom feeder in North America. He wants us to compete with Mexico with the lowest wages, the lowest business taxes and the least in worker rights.
His promises of plentiful jobs, lower taxes and a new broom hit a cord with many people when he went into the 2011 provincial election as the frontrunner in the polls. He was confident. All Timmy had to do was maintain the momentum for a five week campaign.
But Timmy could not do it. People began to question his promises and they found he could not explain them. He not only stumbled in responding to questions but he went too far with some of his answers and people realized that he was just copying promises that Mike Harris could never keep either. His promises were hollow, he had no concrete plan and his party lost that election.
And for the last two years, Tim Hudak has cheated the voters of Ontario. He was Leader of the Opposition in the Legislature yet he left the job to the New Democrat’s Andrea Horwath. He condemned budgets before he knew what was in them. He was always negative and never constructive. He presented policy documents that lacked research, reason or a future for the province. He railed against unions. He has turned off more voters than any previous Conservative leader in Ontario.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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