Uneasy Lies the Head

The knives are out.Tim Hudak's days as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party are numbered. Bob Hepburn writes in The Toronto Star:

In the wake of disappointing losses in four of the five byelections last week, now comes news that Hudak is facing a new open revolt within his party, with two separate calls for a leadership review by groups of Tory activists furious over the party’s poor showing.

If the calls succeed, Hudak could be dumped as leader at the party’s convention set for Sept. 20-22.

Such an outcome is unlikely because it’s almost impossible to rewrite party rules overnight, which the two motions to be pursued during the convention are trying to do. Currently, a leadership review can be held only after an election, and Hudak easily survived such a review after the 2011 vote.

So don't expect Hudak to make a quick exit. But the natives are clearly restless:

In the coming weeks, Hudak must deal with the latest blows to his leadership or face certain electoral defeat. Among them:

Mounting anger over the party’s miserable byelection results. With the Liberals supposedly reeling from the scandal over the $585 million in fees to cancel two gas plants, Hudak was confident of major gains in all five ridings. Instead, it was the NDP that made big gains, with the Tories winning only in Etobicoke-Lakeshore where Toronto deputy mayor Doug Holyday used his personal popularity and the political machine of Mayor Rob Ford to win

 Continuing voter rejection, with Hudak ranked dead last in personal approval ratings of just 27 per cent. He trails both NDP Leader Andrea Horwath (43 per cent) and Premier Kathleen Wynne (35 per cent), according to a Forum Research poll released last week.

Increasing alienation among progressive party members fed up with Hudak’s deliberate move to re-introduce the controversial hard-right policies of former premier Mike Harris. 

The Harris vision no longer sells in Ontario. Ontarians don't view his time as premier as the good old days. Hudak failed to see that truth. However, if Hudak goes, Rob and Doug Ford are waiting in the wings. Getting rid of Hudak may only be the first of many nasty turns for Ontario Conservatives.

For now, Mr. Hudak probably isn't sleeping well. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

That Old Time Religion

On Saturday, Tim Hudak was elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Mr. Hudak entered politics at the age of 27, as a new member of Mike Harris' government. He married one of Mr. Harris' principal advisers, Deb Hutton. And, during the leadership campaign, he advocated the kind of policies Harris championed, like abolishing the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

When the party chose his successor, Ernie Eves, Harris left the building. On Saturday, he was in the front row, where -- according to The Toronto Star -- he "beamed like a proud father during his protege's victory speech." Mr. Harris certainly liked what Hudak stood for. What government needs to do, Harris said, is "to get out of the road so that the private sector can grow the jobs and the wealth we need to run the province." It all sounded remarkably stupid, given our present predicament. The Harris prescription is precisely why we are where we are. It is the reason GM and Chrysler are doing so well.

As Jeffrey Simpson wrote in a recent column, the private sector has not been a source of wisdom or innovation: "Fifteen years ago," -- when Mr. Harris was first elected -- "Nortel Networks employed 29,000 people. It was the country's high tech leader, known here and abroad. It did more research than any company in Canada. It spawned feeder companies. There were other high tech powerhouses like JDS Uniphase and Newbridge Networks. Today many of those companies have been demolished, broken up or taken over. Even Cognos, a wonderful Canadian success story, succumbed to an IBM takeover."

The Conservative prescription used to pass in the 19th Century for Liberalism. Back then, Edmund Burke's conservatism stood for community stability and government protection from wild-eyed individualism run amok. It was with The Great Depression and the New Deal that Liberalism morphed into a different creature -- a political philosophy which saw government as the banker of last resort. New Deal Liberalism gave us Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Pensions and Medicare. Twenty-first century Liberalism seeks to set people back to work, establish a green economy and slow global warming.

On that last score, American conservatives are still in denial. John Boehner -- the Republican leader in the House of Representatives -- called the climate change bill , which passed in the House last week, "a pile of shit."

Nineteenth century conservatives would never have used such inelegant language. The fact remains, however, that twenty-first century conservatives -- like Mr. Harris, Mr.Hudak and Mr. Boehner -- are stuck in the nineteenth century. For the last thirty years they have wanted to return to a simpler time -- when the rules were clear, most of the population was caucasian, women stayed home and government stayed out of the way. Like William Jennings Bryan's supporters during the Scopes Monkey Trial, they have advocated a return to "that Old Time Religion." Unfortunately for them -- and for Mr. Bryan -- we have evolved since then.