Andrea Horwath Proves She is Classier Than McGuinty – Congratulates Hudak

by John Laforet
posted on June 28th, 2009 at 17:56:35 pm

This is the unedited Ontario NDP response to Tim Hudak’s victory, straight from the Canada News Wire NDP Leader Andrea Horwath congratulates Hudak. 

    “I want to congratulate Tim Hudak on his successful run for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. I look forward to working with him in this exciting new role.

    I also want to thank former PC Leader John Tory and interim Leader Bob Runciman for their service. While we differed on many issues, we were able to work together in the Legislature with mutual respect.

    I am confident that respect will continue with Tim and I wish him congratulations tonight.”

This is the unedited Ontario Liberal Party response to Tim Hudak’s victory, straight from the Canada News Wire Harris wannabe squeaks by at Conservative convention.

Deal with Hillier and plan to scrap human rights protections prove Hudak is out of touch with Ontarian’s values

    MARKHAM, ON, June 27 /CNW/ – Ontario Conservatives moved further back to the old Mike Harris era and further out of touch with today’s Ontario in selecting Tim Hudak as their Leader.

    Hudak’s victory is owed largely to the support of radical-right wing candidate Randy Hillier. Hillier’s pledge of support came after Hudak followed Hillier in attacking the human rights protections Ontarians have valued for decades.

    Hudak followed the Mike Harris playbook with negative, divisive pledges to rip up contracts of nurses and teachers. In addition, Hudak has pledged to slash funding for construction of new hospitals, schools and transit in communities across Ontario – which would throw thousands out of work in the middle of a global economic crisis.

    “Ontario families don’t want to go back to the days of the Harris-gang calling the shots and Tim Hudak following,” said Liberal MPP Chris Bentley.

“Ontarians rejected that approach and don’t want to look back.”

My Commentary:

The Ontario NDP did not have any staffers or members of caucus present at the Ontario PC Leadership election. By my count, the Ontario Liberal Party had one Cabinet Minister and four staffers who are full time employees receiving salaries from taxpayer funds. Instead of handing out factually inaccurate and embarrassingly pathetic attacks on candidates at the PC convention, the NDP let the Tories have their weekend undisturbed, unprovoked. 

This to me is a clear demonstration that Andrea Horwath gets that politics doesn’t have to be negative, and hopefully the Ontario NDP decision not to use taxpayers money for partisan purposes (unlike the Ontario Liberal Party) is a demonstration of their rejection of that cynical practice as well. 

I’ve always liked Andrea Horwath, and see her response to Tim Hudak, someone I’m sure she disagrees with on almost everything with, demonstrates a decency that politics is missing. That is something I definitely admire and am happy to see Horwath demonstrating. 

Tim Hudak Wins Ontario PC Leadership

by John Laforet
posted on June 27th, 2009 at 20:29:46 pm

Tim Hudak is the first frontrunner in a while to keep it up right through the finish line. He did so today in Markham with a third ballot victory over Frank Klees. I will have more to say on this later, but for now, enjoy a video with highlights from Hudak’s first speech as Ontario PC Party Leader.

John Tory Tribute

by John Laforet
posted on June 27th, 2009 at 18:48:40 pm

I’ve written about John Tory before, and I’ve often said that I don’t dislike him and have often been critical immediately following my expression of not disliking him. Fundamentally John Tory is a good guy who means well and has made real sacrifices to participate in public life. He is thoughtful, hard working, honest and has gone through far more in a shorter period than many politicians do in an entire career.

When John Tory stepped down after his bi-election defeat, I felt for him. The raw emotion he displayed at his final press conference as leader made it very difficult to not see the well intentioned man who was unfairly pilloried right out of public life.

Over the last number of weeks, as speculation has mounted about whether Tory will run for Mayor of Toronto – its an idea, I frankly think is a good one, and a candidacy I could easily find myself supporting and encouraging others to.

I spoke with John Tory today after his tribute and had a really good chat with him about a number of topics. He shared with me that two of his proudest accomplishments as leader of the Ontario PCs has been the work the party did on outreach, making the PC Party a bigger tent, and the fundraising work he undertook to clear the party of it’s debt and prepare for the fight in 2007.

We spoke about the intense political career he’s had, the six elections in five years he’s faced and the great challenge and impact on his ability to do other things as leader. On that point, if viewed through the lens of John Tory’s commitment to public service and participation, it is nothing but admirable.

Tory recognizes the need for a clearer message when facing voters, and I made a point of not asking or talking about the religious education funding thing and instead focussed on Tory’s timing issue. In 2003 when he ran for Mayor, Torontonian’s were close but not totally open to the idea. In 2006, many Torontonians had wished Tory had not become Leader of the Opposition so he could re-contest that fight. I suspect with the current economic crisis, folks who cared and voted based on religious education are re-thinking their decision.

Now that John Tory has left public life and isn’t a candidate for anything for the first time in five years, I think someone like me would be ready to give a guy like John Tory a try. I guess that’s what being post partisan has done to me at least.