Round Three with The Ontario PC Party Palace Coup

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ontario-s-pc-party-turmoil-shakes-up-election-plans-for-liberals-ndp-1.4510591

Ontario's PC party turmoil shakes up election plans for Liberals, NDP

Parties will have to adjust election plans according to whom PCs elect leader

By Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News Posted: Jan 31, 2018 4:00 AM ET


857 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.

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David Amos

@Tom Dugas "where have the real PC's gone?"

Methinks PCs went the way of the Dodo Bird Many Moons ago. N'esy Pas?

BTW I did my best to explain why PCs should be proud on the radio before the last election was history and the Liberals swept the Maritimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgTsmzbasCA

David Amos

@Tom Dugas I replied but CBC doesn't want folks to hear the truth about their creation by the PC Party

 
David Sampson

The Ontario version of the Conservative Party needs to distance itself from the closed-tent, reform, fundamentalist, western regional fringe-right movement masquerading as the National Conservative Party.

David Amos

@David Sampson Methinks Doug Ford may be the Dude to do it. However doubt anyone has reminded him of the emails I sent he and his brother years ago. All the political pundit may rest assured I will in short order N'esy Pas?

David Amos 

@John Oaktree Well brace yourself for more sadness or learn to love "Canada's Natural Governing Party" (according to them anyway). Methinks the malicious nonsense of the Ontario Conservatives will rub off on the Harper 2.0 dudes everywhere.

Whether I am wrong about the future The facts right now are that right the liberals are in control Federally and Ontario and eastward provincially. I doubt most folks will vote for the Conservatives party knowing there is an internal battle for control of their party. It a case of the devil you know is better than the devil you don't N'esy Pas?

Whereas the NDP are feuding out west and the Federal dudes appear to be toast I doubt they will take much wind out of the Liberal sails anywhere. Hence the liberals have Canada in the bag and in my opinion they don't deserve it.

Alberta premier threatens economic retaliation against B.C. over bitumen restrictions

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-bc-crude-restrictions-kinder-morgan-pipeline-legal-action-1.4512068

Stormy weather just latest bad news for NDP in Quebec

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-ndp-quebec-1.4499718

Ray Thomas

Wynn'e Liberal legacy of mismanagement , malfeasance and plain bad policy speaks for itself. Not even the usual election bag of goodies that she shamelessly uses to buy low information voters can save her now. Get her fitted for an orange jumpsuit.

Michele McLean

@Ray Thomas

I'd be a little careful about throwing such accusations around, else the person facing possible legal action is you.

David Amos

@Michele McLean "I'd be a little careful about throwing such accusations around, else the person facing possible legal action is you."

Methinks its CBC's problem. They published it N'esy Pas?

Angela Kung

The PC party is a complete train wreck. It's being torn from within by the social conservatives who thought they were getting one of their own when they chose Brown. My guess is they'll be flexing their muscles during the leadership campaign.

David Amos

@Angela Kung "My guess is they'll be flexing their muscles during the leadership campaign"

What muscles? I can't even see a backbone or a brain and defintely no cahones with this new baby yet. Methinks it to soon to tell how it will conduct itself when it grows up when not many wish to nurture it through the next election N'esy Pas?

Angela Kung

@David Amos
Don't know. I was referring to the hard core right wingers and religious right who I think will be flexing their muscles when it comes to leadership. Brown actually recognized the party had to move left in order for it to grow. Now I think it's going to slide way back to the right again. We'll see.

 

David Amos

@Angela Kung If you are bored Google the following to see what I've been up behind the scenes the week before this story broke

David Amos YO Bill Morneau Patrick Brown

  

steve houle

Win the liberals they will be lucky to place third. After all the scandals in the last 13 yrs. She is the most despised premier in the history of Ont. along with bag man Dalton

Neil Turv

@Dawn MacNeill

Can you imagine if Koch and Soros passed way at the same time?

The far right and left fringes would to have to find whole new sources of conspiracy money.

David Amos

@Neil Turv Dream on FYI there are two Kochs and Soros has son who is just like him.


 
Richard Sharp

The way contenders are dropping like flies, one might conclude there are still more skeletons in the Cons’ closet. A party purge in front of the electorate months before an election. Will’ the Cons snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again?

David Amos

@Richard Sharp Methinks "Et tu, Brute?"stuff is much in fashion these these days amongst Conservatives in particularly since Trump took the reigns of Power South of the 49th N'esy Pas Mr Sharp?

David Amos

@Richard Sharp Wanna tip to see what went down the week before ?

Google

David Amos YO Bill Morneau Patrick Brown

Paul Mulhern

Try as he may Doug Ford will never rise to demands of the role of Premier of Ontario. His knowledge of the inner workings of the political system, his articulation of base political fundimentals , and the image he portrays as an astute leader are sadly lacking. He’s just a good business man seeking a position well beyond his ability and skills. He does not retain the ‘charisma’ of his late brother. He should step aside gracefully and throw his support behind the man or woman eventually selected to lead the PC party of Ontario.

Michael Murphy

@Joe Godin So he rips off his brother's old schtick and the voters fall for it?

Ridiculous, he could at least develop his own persona

David Amos

@Paul Mulhern "He’s just a good business man seeking a position well beyond his ability and skills."

So what does that make Brown or Harper in your books? What businesses did they run successfully? A "Defeated Maritimer"would like to know how smooth were they at being astute leaders?

David Amos

@Michael Murphy "Ridiculous, he could at least develop his own persona"

I'm still Just Dave. What sort of persona have you developed lately?

 
Catherine Haigh

WHEN the Conservatives change their platform, either before or after the election, no matter who becomes leader ... NOBODY should be surprised. Their left of left platform isn't real. Their ideology hasn't changed. Give to the rich ...

Tom Dugas

@Simon McVeigh

no scare tactics, there record for over 3 decades both federal and provincial prove the PC's (not really) govern for the rich and themselves exclusively.

where have the real PC's gone?

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David Amos

@Tom Dugas "where have the real PC's gone?"

Methinks PCs went the way of the Dodo Bird Many Moons ago. N'esy Pas?

BTW I did my best to explain why PCs should be proud on the radio before the last election was history and the Liberals swept the Maritimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgTsmzbasCA

David Amos

@Tom Dugas I replied but CBC doesn't want folks to hear the truth about their creation by the PC Party

 

Jeremy Kemp

PC problems will prove terminal for at least two election cycles, The future holds a smaller majority for Wynne and a larger NDP caucus.

David Amos

@Jeremy Kemp "PC problems will prove terminal"

When their overnight interim leader changes his mind in a heartbeat about wanting to be their leader then talks of rot within the party I would have to agree it certainly sounds terminal.

 

Richard Sharp

The last thing Ontario needs is a Conservative government run by has-been clones of Stephen Harper or Mike Harris. Better a Lib-NDP coalition, with one of those parties advancing to a majority after showing Ontario voters what they’ve got.

David Amos

@Richard Sharp How on earth are the Liberals and NDP any better? . Have you checked their track records?

Jim Gurtle

The NDP would stoke taxes and slow growth. Those voters who don't remember the 1990 election should look it up.

Richard Sharp

@Jim Gurtle

The fiscal (budgetary) records of provincial NDP governments are superior to those of either Liberal or Conservative governments. Look it up.

David Amos

@Richard Sharp "Look it up."

Have you checked Nova Scotia lately?

David Amos 

@Steven Arsenault "Sort of like the NDP in Alberta getting elected at the worst time, yet behaving and being a more responsible gov't then they have had in years"

It took the NDP 8 years to realize Barry Winters was threatening them and only did so after I sued Alberta et al then argued the Crown for nearly two years

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/nobody-safe-from-edmonton-blogger-charged-with-hate-crime-1.4161015

'Nobody was safe from it': Edmonton blogger charged with rare hate crime targeted individuals across Canada

 
Laura Shelly
The main objective here is to remove Wynne. Here is a sample of just how bad it's been under her government:
- The EHealth scandal
- The public funding of sex-changes while de-listing eye exams phsyio & chiro
- The billion-dollar flip-flop on The Oakville gas plant
- Saddling rate-payers with billions in subsidies to Samsung & Ikea
- The Ombudsman/Auditor-General condemnations
- Turning Hydro into a luxury for the rich
- The by-election briberies
- The refusal to correct foreign ownership of our beer market
- The outrageous property assessments
- The stifling of private health services
- The illegal and unconstitutional secret G20 law
- The harassing labour inspectors
- Dumping the blue box program onto small businesses
- The $58 Million ‘severance’ to tax-collectors who didn’t miss a single day’s work
- Socialized daycare
- The failure at Caledonia
- Sinking Ontario into Have-Not status
- The slush fund scandal
- The lottery corp scandals
- The CancerCare scandal
- The MPAC scandal
- The Children’s Aid scandal
- The hospital consultants scandal
- The Niagara Parks Commission scandal
- The tire tax
- The electronics tax
- The cheap beer surtax
- The hidden hydro tax
- The planned hidden gas tax
- The ‘smart meter’ tax
- The ‘Eco’ tax
- The auto pension bailouts
- The Nortel pension bailouts
- No reduction in HST despite $4.3 Billion from the feds
- The forcing of WSIB on all construction owners
- The staggering increase in the Sunshine List
- The failure at Caledonia
- Selling out to the teachers & civic unions
- The blatant Nanticoke lie
- The squandering of record revenues
- The Health Tax

Karen King

@Steven Arsenault

she's a newbie, probably a bot from the web brigade.

David Amos

@Karen King I am ot a bot but why not have your bot surf the net with my and any politician it can think up and see what it finds?

Try these names first

david amos kathleen wynne

  

George William

The liberals only hope is if the conservatives , NDP and greens don't run any candidates in any ridings.

David Amos

@George William Don't bet on it

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-rick-dykstra-investigation-1.4512888

Andrew Scheer orders investigation into Rick Dykstra candidacy

By Aaron Wherry, CBC News Posted: Jan 31, 2018 3:40 PM ET

 

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has called for an independent investigation into Rick Dykstra's 2015 election bid. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer says he has instructed his party to launch an independent investigation into questions surrounding Rick Dykstra's federal candidacy in 2015.

 Dykstra, a former Conservative MP, resigned as president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party on Sunday. Hours later, Maclean's magazine published a report saying Dykstra had been accused of sexual assault in 2014.

According to Maclean's, Conservative party officials allowed Dykstra to stand as a candidate in 2015 despite the allegation.

CBC News has not spoken to the person who made the allegation against Dykstra.

"It is difficult to ascertain the facts when sources are speaking anonymously to the media. So to gather these facts, I have instructed the Conservative Party of Canada to retain the services of an outside, independent third party, who can investigate this situation fully," Scheer said on Wednesday.

Politics News

Scheer calls for independent investigation into sexual assault claims

00:00 03:35

Scheer calls for independent investigation into sexual assault claims3:35

The report will be made public, a party spokesperson confirmed.

In his initial response to the Maclean's report, Scheer said he could not speak to "decisions made by past campaign teams" and he did not speak to reporters after meeting with the Conservative caucus on Wednesday morning.

But some Conservative MPs had begun calling for an investigation.

"I don't know why the party didn't do anything at that time and they have to answer these questions," Maxime Bernier told reporters on his way to the caucus meeting.

"The party must respond. They're the ones who had these facts at the time and I think that they have to tell us what happened."

Brad Trost later tweeted that Bernier was "110% right. There absolutely needs to be an investigation launched."

"I don't want this to be a backwards-looking witch hunt," Erin O'Toole told reporters, "but I want us to make sure we learn from it and never allow such a situation to arise again."

Scheer said the Conservatives would also be "strengthening the code of conduct for all party staff, and ensuring candidates are subject to it as well. The additional measures will include mandatory training.
"
During debate in the House of Commons on Monday, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel criticized the reported response of some in her party to the allegations against Dykstra.

"Is it possible for a drunk staffer to give consent for sex to a senior male within their workplace organization who aggressively propositions that staffer? Within any standard workplace code of conduct, the answer to that should be unequivocally no," she said.

Scheer was also asked whether he felt he had ever acted inappropriately in the past.

"No," he said. "A good friend of mine when I first got elected said nothing good happens in Ottawa after 8:00 and I've tried to live by that rule."

Ontario's PC party turmoil shakes up election plans for Liberals, NDP

Parties will have to adjust election plans according to whom PCs elect leader

By Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News Posted: Jan 31, 2018 4:00 AM ET

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, left, and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath don't know who they will be facing in Ontario's June election now that Patrick Brown has resigned as PC leader. (Liberal.ca/Twitter) 

Patrick Brown's abrupt resignation as Ontario Progressive Conservative leader has not only thrown his party into turmoil with an election on the horizon but it's also disrupting election plans for the Liberals and NDP.

The campaign is due to start in May with a vote on June 7. Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne was preparing to fight off Brown's very real threat of unseating her but now he's vanished and the party needs a new leader.

Wynne and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath have no idea who their opponent is going to be and that means they, too, are in a holding pattern while the PCs have a leadership race.

Brown stepped down following a media report that contained allegations of sexual misconduct. Brown denied the allegations and none have been proven in court.

• Doug Ford says he will run in Ontario PC leadership race
• What did the Ontario PCs know? And when did they know it?

"For the last six to nine months, parties have been busily preparing their campaign plans," said Kathleen Monk, a political commentator and strategist who worked for former federal NDP leader Jack Layton.

Brown speaks at a news conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Jan. 24, 2018, a few hours before he stepped down as Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press)

"We knew the cast of characters. All of a sudden, the cast of characters has changed," said Monk.
"We don't know who the third player is and that's significant."

Doug Ford kicks off the race

When Wynne and Horwath talked to reporters a few hours after Brown's resignation in their offices at Queen's Park, they were reluctant to comment on how his departure affects their campaigns. They both wanted to keep the focus on the issues of sexual harassment and violence against women and what to do about it.

But behind the scenes, their strategists are likely talking over potential scenarios. What if they are up against someone like Doug Ford? The former Toronto city councillor and brother of the late mayor Rob Ford announced Monday that he is going for the job and wants to be premier.

Running against Ford will require different strategies than running against someone like Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney who is being urged to put her name forward. While they both come from political families, their resumes and personalities differ greatly.

Campaigns do opposition research on their competitors so they are ready to attack, if and when necessary. Until the Liberals and NDP know who the PC leader will be, they have to prepare for various candidates or wait until he or she is chosen and then act quickly.

Former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford holds a news conference in Toronto on Jan. 29, 2018, to announce his intention to run for leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. (Frank Gunn/CBC)

The PCs will choose their leader by the end of March, with the campaign officially starting just a few weeks later.

War rooms must be 'nimble'

"There is no doubt that whoever the PCs do pick will factor into the campaign strategies of the NDP and the Liberals and their war rooms," said Robin MacLachlan, a political commentator and vice-president at Summa Strategies in Ottawa.

"They will have to be nimble."

The new PC leader might change parts of the party's platform, which was released in November and has Brown's face on the cover of it.

The Liberals and NDP have had plenty of time to pick it apart. If changes are made, the parties will have to adapt and prepare new responses.

Wynne speaks to media in her office at the Ontario legislature on Jan. 25, 2018, following Brown's resignation as PC leader. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

"There is a lot of uncertainty," said David Herle, the Liberal campaign co-chair, on CBC Radio's The House.

"We don't 100 per cent know if they are going to stick with their platform."

Herle also said that Brown's departure could improve the PCs' chances of winning in June.

"Frankly, Brown was a weak leader and a weak candidate and I was looking forward to running a campaign against him," said Herle. "And the odds are quite high that they will choose somebody more effective."

Wynne, while a seasoned politician and campaigner, is an unpopular premier and the Liberals trailed the PCs in polls for months. More recently, they have managed to close the gap.

Last week, all indications were pointing to a tough and close election to be fought primarily between Wynne and Brown, with the NDP's Horwath trailing behind their two parties.

NDP could seize opportunity

The NDP was always going to try and pitch its party as the best alternative to the Liberals, but Monk said that message might break through more now that the PCs are in turmoil.

"I think where Andrea and the party have an opportunity in what's happening is that if you want a change from Kathleen Wynne, now really Andrea is your only other choice because that party is in such shambles," she said.

"Certainly any political seismic activity like what's just happened in the last few days is going to affect the election results and does create opportunity but it's how the party and campaigners use it to galvanize people around her," said Monk.

Horwath speaks to reporters in her office at the legislature on Jan. 25, 2018, after Brown's resignation as PC party leader. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Even some Conservative strategists acknowledge Brown's resignation could work in the NDP's favour.
"This may be the first glimmer of hope for the NDP campaign team that they have a realistic shot," said Chad Rogers, who works with Crestview Strategies.

"They win it by default," said Rogers, who has worked on campaigns on all political levels.

The NDP publicly says it plans to remain focused on its core issues and it doesn't matter whom the PCs elect as leader.

"We are very focused on what we are campaigning for, not what we are campaigning against," MPP Peter Tabuns said Tuesday.

NDP officials say they didn't have any Brown attack ads ready to go, but some third parties were ready to take aim at Brown on the airwaves.

The union-backed group Working Families Coalition already ran attack ads against Brown last year and was set to wage its own campaign against him this spring to keep the PCs out of office. The group now says it is taking a "wait-and-see attitude to see how things shake out."

All parties agree there is uncertainty ahead, but as MacLachlan put it, one thing is certain: "There is no doubt this is going to be a unique election in Ontario."