Author: Stephen Taylor

To remove myself from federal politics for a minute, I thought that I should mention that I met a one Mr. John Tory today in Kingston. The former Toronto mayoral candidate was visiting Kingston today on a listening tour to set his ‘potential’ plans in motion for a run at the Ontario PC leadership.

At a small meeting of about 20 people at Aunt Lucy’s restaurant, Mr. Tory addressed our group and fielded our questions and concerns for regaining provincial conservative grassroots support and for citing lessons learned during the last provincial loss to the Ontario Liberals. John Tory asserted that campaigns cannot be based upon personal attacks and that such attacks reflect upon the lack of confidence in one’s own policies. Tory reminded us that the mayoral campaign was free from such attacks by all candidates. The campaign debt incurred by the provincial PC was cited as one of the principle hurdles facing the party in the future. In his professional career, Tory raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various organizations such as the United Way and St. Michael’s Hospital. He also mentioned that his mayoral campaign was debt free and that he helped/is helping two other mayoral contenders clear their debts.

I spoke with John and asked him what his “issue” was going to be should he become leader. Tory noted that if McGuinty’s liberals keep breaking their promises, it’ll be government accountability. However, he noted that the leadership race is far enough into the future and that a provincial election is even further and that Ontario may face a myriad of issues by then. After learning about my federal Conservative nomination bid for Kingston and the Islands, John told me that I should run provincially for the PC.

What does one say to that?

I think that I blurted out “Give me a call, let me know” Then we exchanged business cards.

And that was my encounter with a one Mr. John Tory. Seems like a nice guy.

Here’s a fresh report from the National Broadcaster detailing death threats received by the former vice-president of Groupaction, one of the advertising companies at the centre of the Sponsorship Scandal.

Alain Richard said that his doorbell rang at 4am Thursday morning, the day after he agreed to testify at the House of Commons public accounts committee. He later opened his door to find a letter which read “if you talk to much, you will die”

This story is still developing but it appears as though Adscam has almost reached Nixonian proportions.

Death threats? How uncanadian!

Apparently, this is not the first time Mr. Richard has received threats to his personal safety. In February, CTV news reported that Richard has received numerous threats including one in the middle of the night which stated “Don’t show yourself at the office the next morning”. He has also described receiving anonymous phone calls and letters. Richard told CTV news that he doesn’t trust the RCMP or the government for protection and has resorted to hiring his own bodyguards.

In a poll released this week by the fair pollsters at Ipsos-Reid, the Liberals appear to be stuck in minority territory since the last poll released. However, the other parties moved slightly (albeit within the margin of error). The Conservatives are up 1% to 27%, NDP down 2% to 15%, Bloc Quebecois down 2% to 10% and the Green Party up 1% to 5%.

In Summary:
Liberals: 38% (+/-0)
Conservatives: 27% (+1)
NDP: 15% (-2)
Bloc: 10% (-2)
Green 5% (+1)

The recent events of the past week have been the Conservative Leadership Convention and the Liberal Budget. The Budget should have provided a boost in support to the Liberals but it provided little for either social spending on one hand or tax cuts/job creation on the other. The election of a new Conservative leader should have also provided a boost in the polls for the Conservative party as stability should be perceived in the new party. However, Mr. Harper was the leader of the official conservative opposition before the merger and now he’s the leader again. The Conservative team will accentuating Mr. Harper’s image as a moderate and as a logical and safe choice for the replacement of the Chrétien/Martin Liberals.

Most interesting, however, is a report today by the National Post which states that in another poll, 53% of Canadians would be undecided voters (or could change their minds) in the next federal election. I don’t remember seeing the undecided numbers so high in recent history. It appears that Canadian confidence in the Liberals has finally been shaken and now Canadians will have to consider other options. In the end, it may come down to a two horse race between the Liberals and the Conservatives as many Liberals see a valid 2nd choice in the Conservative Party. Indeed, a conservative party has always been the choice of Canadians when they’ve been ready to remove the governing Liberals from office.

Further, during election campaigns the Liberals have always lost popular support while the Conservatives have gained it; every election campaign in recent history has been the Liberal’s to lose.

These numbers should be very troubling to Mr. Martin and I’d be surprised and astounded if he thinks that he can bank on apathy this time around as his predecessor, Mr. Chrétien did in 2000.

Canadian democracy appears as if it is starting to come back to life. A competitive democracy is in everyone’s interest after all, for only then is a mandate received a mandate earned.