This Friday I attended an Ontario PC youth function for the first time in many years — the youth wing of the provincial party is still much the same that it was when I last knew it; full of energetic, yet overly-ambitious youngsters who all believe that they will be both Premier and Prime Minister one day. Not that I can much blame them; politics has a way of attracting such personalities and I can’t say that I was much different when I was five years younger.
Anyway, the “Holiday Party” was interesting this year in that the OPCYA (Ontario PC Youth Association) is a defacto Keep John Tory club whose leadership believes that they have reputations to maintain and everything to gain if they support the embattled leader as he clings desperately to the party’s mantle. Tory himself showed up and worked the room by meeting every supporter and neutral youth in the vicinity, as did the founder of Draft A Leader, a website devoted to the cause of replacing Tory with someone more competent.
Interestingly, I noticed that many of the party members in attendance who were wearing “I’m With Tory” buttons (not the best slogan I noted to some, as it brought the phrase “I’m With Stupid” to mind!) were true to good old tory fashion; glad hand the famous guy whose posters were plastered in every campaign office two months ago, and then as soon as he was out of earshot, sharpen their tongues to the tune of the many flaws Tory possesses.
As for Tory’s steadfast supporters, they reminded me of Liberals…and not just because their guy practically is one either. Unfortunately, every single supporter of Mr. Tory that I spoke to (and many others at the party attested to this as well) broke their arguments down like this:
He’s a great guy
How?
Well he’s a great leader.
How?
Well he’s done a lot of organizing in the party
How?
He’s made the party a big tent party and made everyone feel welcome
When the conversation got to this last point during the night, I would note the ridiculous irony of anyone on the Tory side stating this point given that a)70% of Ontarians (including many traditional PC voters) didn’t feel comfortable or welcomed by Mr. Tory’s vision and b)if there’s a sizable ditch the leader movement in the party right now than obviously Mr. Tory has failed within his own party as well. An overarching theme I touched upon many times in discussing this is that Mr. Tory cannot run a party or fight an election with only 3/4 of a party behind him. Tory himself responded to a question of what would constitute a sufficient vote of confidence at the PC Party’s February convention with a 50% + 1 votes number. Obviously the guy didn’t learn the lesson that the PC and Reform/CA Parties had to learn in from 1993-2003 — a problem that was partly Tory’s fault given his campaign power under Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell.
So while times are interesting again within the former natural governing party of Ontario, you can only feel pity for the party right now as it’s establishment tries desperately to protect a leader who is in every sense of the phrase “yesterday’s man”. The emergence of classical liberalism, modern libertarianism, populism, social conservativism and other philosophies which are the true products of a truly progressive mind, and which are willing to base ideas not on how the party/system was before — as Tory’s is — is slowly eroding the way that the party acted in the past. Certainly, the Red Tories have an unaccounted for control of the party and its resources, but come election time, it really makes you wonder where that 10% drop in voter turnout really came from; after all, the PC Party can’t fight an election with only a fraction of a party, and conservatives of all stripes are learning that the best way to protest the leadership is simply to stay at home! And that, my friends, is why Tory must step down or be dethroned!
Swift wrote:
All the liberals are rooting for John.
Posted on 23-Dec-07 at 2:12 pm | Permalink
Jack’s Newswatch wrote:
[…] Update: John Tory: Running From Our Past… […]
Posted on 23-Dec-07 at 2:35 pm | Permalink
Nick Kouvalis wrote:
The link to “Draft A Leader” is not correct. The actual site is at http://www.draftaleader.com NOT .ca
Thanks.
Great Post. It’s nice to see that some youth actually stood back and watched what was happening.
I was pleased to see the strength of the YES vote among the youth. I am sure John Tory was also surprised.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Nick Kouvalis
Posted on 23-Dec-07 at 2:41 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
Hi Nick,
Thanks for pointing out the typo. I have now corrected the link in the post.
Merry Christmas,
Matthew
Posted on 23-Dec-07 at 4:37 pm | Permalink
george wrote:
Good luck Nik at “drafting a leader” you sure are going to need it at least among the youth.
I too attended the opcya christmas party (not my first in years ethier) and was glad to see the overwhelming amount of support for our leader.
One thing I have noticed from attending many events since the october 10th election is that it seems the people who are calling for a review are the same people who didn’t bother to volunteer during the election.
Strange how that is?
Nik good luck you sure are going to need it
Posted on 24-Dec-07 at 2:08 am | Permalink
bob wrote:
You could choose someone a la era mike harris. Of course that would make Dalton smile. You could also pick a social conservative. At that point you might as well not have an election.
Posted on 24-Dec-07 at 10:06 am | Permalink
Nick Kouvalis wrote:
George,
Not sure who you are refering to with respect to “volunteering” during the campaign. I worked on a few and volunteered on many between the months of June and October. Certainly you are not suggesting that the election was lost dur to some people not volunteering? Perhaps it really had nothing to do with John Tory losing his own seat and receiving less votes than Ernie Eves?
John Tory was recently quoted suggesting that he had “the support of the vast majority”, but obviously since yesterdays SES poll we see that his support is not “vast”. It may not be a majority when you factor in the margin of error. I attempted to suggest this since I have been communicating with hundreds of “grassroots members” at http://www.draftaleader.com
So now instead of the adjective “vast” you decide to use “overwhelming” with respect to the support for John Tory at the OPCYA Christmas Party.
Overwheling: over powering in strength: overwhelming joy; overwhelming majority
If your support was “vast” and or “overwhelming” than you would have no problem agreeing to http://www.draftaleader.com/80-minus-1.html
According to SES, John Tory’s support is not vast nor overwheling. When you consider that margin of error John Tory may not even have a “razor thin” majority.
According to this: http://victory2011.blogspot.co.....stone.html
It is clear that support for Tory is slipping and it is the loss of support that triggered that reactionary “Letter to the Membership” rather than a report to the membership from the “Leader”.
Anyway George, I was at the same party and I find it typical of the John Tory camp to somehow always find a way to convince themselves that everything will be fine.
It’s one thing to prepare a message and talking points but it is a completely different thing to believe your own BS.
If people like you have any influence in this “save John Tory” campaign, then people like me will be sleeping very good at night.
Merry Christmas to you and all the best in the New Year!
Posted on 24-Dec-07 at 11:18 am | Permalink
Pete Vere wrote:
Sault Ste. Marie, my hometown, is a good example of what happened to John Tory. The base generally ignored both him and the campaign.
Some socons parked their vote with the Family Coalition Party. Others went across the river (Sault Ste. Marie is a border town with about a third of the city in Northern Michigan) to join their Republican cousins in helping out with the primaries.
The Liberals ran a popular Blue Grit who sucked out a lot of the Red Tory vote.
The local John Tory candidate was a early-to-mid-twenty-something banker and John Tory cheerleader with a freshly minted university degree. The local base found him out of touch with their issues and more-or-less just ignored him. It was sad to watch him come in with about 7 percent of the vote. He’s a well-intentioned young man who wants to serve our community, but unfortunately he hitched his wagon to John Tory.
Posted on 25-Dec-07 at 10:24 pm | Permalink
darrell wrote:
ugh. John Tory is not a conservative. The sooner he goes away, the better. Harris left the scene too soon.
My reviews of America Alone by Mark Steyn are up at the top of http://www.darrellep.com.
Posted on 02-Jan-08 at 11:20 pm | Permalink
darrell wrote:
oops, it’s http://www.darrellepp.com
Posted on 02-Jan-08 at 11:20 pm | Permalink