While we have been known to refer to Barrie MP Patrick Brown as ‘that nebbish,’ his latest political ploy is the height of hypocrisy. He has good reason to worry about being elected in his new federal riding next year so he can at least get some publicity by going for the Ontario Conservative leadership. By not resigning his seat in the House of Commons, he is showing a lack of confidence and contempt for the voters and his job.
If any Ontario Progressive Conservative Party member asks, all we can say with certainty is that he has no single attribute they might be looking for in a provincial party leader.
This is a person who has been in parliament for the past eight years and has done absolutely nothing to distinguish himself in that period except set a new record for needless and inane communications expenditures. He likes being known as a ‘retail politician.’ That is a politician who concentrates all his efforts and expenses on his riding. He seems to devote his attention entirely on his constituency and only shows up in Ottawa to vote as instructed. He will ask easy questions in the House if they are written in advance by a minister’s staff.
Brown should be pitied rather than elected to anything. He has no discernible political philosophy and a serious lack of personality. Women have been known to be interested in him for as much as ten minutes until they find he has nothing to talk about. He reached his academic zenith when he finally got through Bar Admission in Ontario.
But he has nothing to offer the Ontario Conservatives who still like to call themselves Progressive. He is actually dumber than Tiny Tim Hudak, the former leader. He was with Hudak during the last Ontario election when the then Ontario PC Leader announced that he was going to fire 100,000 Ontario civil servants. We know that Brown would never have suggested that—or anything else.
And besides, Brown has little hope of defeating sitting MPPs for the leadership such as Christine Elliot from Oshawa or Vic Fideli from North Bay. So what is he running for?
It sounds like Brown has hired a speech writer. Where the money is coming from though remains something of a mystery. The best advice we can give his opponents in the Ontario race is to get him off his script. They will quickly see that he has nothing to offer.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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