This time it's different - again

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: JWIKI2014
Wife of late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and MPP Christine Elliott has been immersed in politics for decades. Could this be her year?

Every year Toronto Maple Leafs fans try to shake off failures of the last season and look to the future. Sure, the leadership is shaky: Yes, the star players seem to do more for the opposing team than their own, but one day it will just make victory even sweeter. Maybe it's just the Toronto curse that the boys in blue can't close the deal. Except this time, I'm talking about the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.

The 2014 Ontario election was a marvel to behold. It was astounding to pundits, the media and probably to the politicians themselves that after a billion-dollar vote grab funded by taxpayers, the Liberal Party of Ontario still achieved a majority government.

For Premier Kathleen Wynne, it was a testament to what could be accomplished when you're campaigning against someone who seemed incapable of even conceiving of a platform that the public would find palatable.

Now, it's the political off-season and time to rebuild. The PC Party of Ontario is in the midst of a series of leadership debates designed to help party members select the leader who will take on Wynne's Liberal majority. Among those candidates is a familiar name to Londoners, current MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Monte McNaughton.

Without getting into exhaustive detail, the key difference between the leadership hopefuls can be observed in their branding. McNaughton is pursuing the traditional conservative supporters with a platform that extols the virtues of transparency and family values. Also in the running is the token advocate for business, MPP Vic Fedeli. His platform hinges, as they all do to some extent, on rebuilding the PC Party, but he has yet to bring anything to the table to separate himself from the other candidates.

While McNaughton is pointedly avoiding the leader-centric model of campaigning, it's a model that has performed exceptionally well for the Ontario Liberal Party over the last decade. Former Premier Dalton McGuinty was popular among unions and public-sector employees. Similarly, Premier Wynne came to power by distancing herself from the McGuinity administration, establishing herself as a distinct brand that would clean the house and re-establish the Ontario Liberal Party.

The initial leadership race jostling has just begun, so name recognition is still the primary factor to consider. In that regard, MPP Christine Elliott is ahead by a mile. The wife of late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been immersed in politics for decades. Her toughest adversary could well turn out to be the only federal politician in the mix, Patrick Brown. He's already come out of the gate swinging, accusing Elliott of backing Hudak's plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs, which she immediately denied. Rounding out the group is MPP Lisa MacLeod. With little to offer in terms of a unique platform or an exceptional track record, MacLeod will have an uphill battle to get on the electorate's radar.

Ultimately, the Ontario PC Party will have to find a balance between appeasing their traditional power base and reaching out to the swing vote. Conservative values are becoming increasingly popular in the most populated areas of the country, and, in some regards, the key to victory for the PCs will be staying out of their own way.

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