If you are going to mud wrestle with a political opponent, you had better like the taste of mud. Yet even we are surprised that Ontario’s two political grannies—Premier Kathleen Wynne and her deputy MPP Deb Matthews—are wasting their time in the mud with new Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown. The bashful Barrie bachelor likes the taste of mud and he is slinging it today because the Liberal grannies will not call a by-election for him.
This is not too say that Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop in Simcoe North is not chortling over the troubles he has caused his former leader. Dunlop waited until it was too short a time before the upcoming federal election to announce his resignation. Rather than cause confusion, the Queen’s Park Liberals said the provincial by-election can wait until after the October 19 federal election.
That left the impoverished Brown gnashing his teeth. He has to spend another three or four months without a paycheque. He has lived mainly off the taxpayer since he first ran for Barrie City Council when he was 22-years old. And for someone used to the highlife of a bachelor MP in Ottawa—where he was making $160,000 plus lavish expenses, Brown must be feeling the pinch as he—supposedly—eats at soup kitchens.
And when you get no quarter from the Liberal grannies, it can really tick you off. Mind you, those grannies are enjoying the scene. It is hardly a secret that very few of the provincial Conservative caucus are in a rush to see Brown in the Legislature. The surprise winner of the Ontario Conservative Party’s leadership sweeps in May has a do-nothing reputation from nine years as an MP in Ottawa and hardly stayed within the Marquess of Queensberry Rules in signing up some 40,000 new members—mainly immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. And, as undemocratic and unfair as it might have been, it was highly questionable if it was done within Ontario Conservative Party rules.
Garfield Dunlop will hardly be the last of the old guard Progressive Conservatives who do not want to serve under the bashful Barrie bachelor. We expect that Christine Elliott will resign now that she will not face the humiliation of that twerp running in her and her late husband’s former provincial riding.
So we can get rid of Stephen Harper in October and then we can help the Simcoe North voters to get rid of that nebbish Brown in November. Democracy can still win.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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