ON THE ONTARIO PCs

You know, I have not said much about the future of John Tory as Ontario PC leader, though a number of other people have.

Quite frankly, it's obvious that whatever I say is going to be biased in favor of him staying on anyway, so why bother even ranting. I'm not about to stab this man in the back, not after all the great opportunities I had on his campaigns before.

I mean really, who are they going to replace him with if he goes? Frank Klees?! Klees backed this religious schools thing all the way-- he was probably the guy who sold Tory on the whole proposal to begin with. And Klees also likes private health clinics! Klees could NEVER win an election as leader, not with those policies!! I don't see how Tim Hudak, Christine Elliott, Lisa MacLeod or any of these other folks could possibly do any better, either.

Let's face it folks, the Ontario PCs are screwed. If they can't win with John Tory as leader then they can't win, period, as far as I'm concerned. This party is a mess.

I have to say, though, I really do worry about party unity in the Ontario PCs after this election debacle. A lot of people are stunned and disappointed by these disasterous election results. I don't blame them.

You want to know what I think Tory ought to do? All I have to say is that if Tory intends to stick around, he needs to show complete contrition and be in a complete beg-for-forgiveness mode when making the rounds with the party faithful. He's got to do everything Joe Clark DIDN'T do when he was in trouble - he needs to be big enough to say he blew the election, and beg for another chance. And then hopefully he'll get a clear vote of confidence at the convention and get a seat in the legislature again. Tory can't treat the leadership job as any kind of divine right because if he does that, he's dead. Just like what went down with Joe Who.

Tory needs to go around with his tail between his legs. No question about it. I think his saying this week that he is shelving that whole religious schools policy is a step in the right direction, even though I thought that policy was the fair thing to do.