Can Frank Klees Be Trusted?
June 14, 2009 · By Matthew Campbell
If there is one problem that Frank Klees has faced this year as he competes for a second time to be Ontario PC leader, it’s that many of us in the party grassroots just don’t know what to think of him. After all, he is currently the individual coming to the defense of the Ontario Human Rights Commissions despite their totalitarian agenda and conduct, whereas it only seemed like yesterday that he was lobbying for private healthcare innovation within our province. Many people were surprised (shocked might be a better word) when the numbers came out in May that suggested that Klees is within a whisker of winning this thing, but I wasn’t — having many friends and contacts within the pro-family movement, I know Klees has been spent years actively courting the membership of the movement and has quite effectively brought thousands of pro-life and pro-family Ontarians into the PC fold for this race. This post is to those individuals who think that they are getting a swell guy who will put some sanity back into our province’s social framework:
I haven’t personally been burdened by an instance wherein I loaned Frank Klees my trust when he promised me one thing and then did another, but over the years, I’ve grown to be unsurprised when I meet someone who says they have. I’ve chalked a lot of it up to the fact that the candidate calls himself a “progressive conservative” and has been associated with the social conservative, red tory and libertarian wings of the party at different points in the last decade — his voting record isn’t any more insightful into who the real Frank Klees is. I finally got to have a one-on-one with the man a couple of weeks ago and confess that he handles himself amazingly well in policy discussions. I had two specific questions for him though, and neither of the answers I got were very comforting. On the first, dealing with something he’d change that Dalton McGuinty gave us over the past six years, Klees refused to answer, saying that these discussions were best left up to the grassroots. That, in and of itself was actually a pretty good response in my books, except that when the second question on why he’s treating the HRCs like he is came up, he told me that “I will not be around” if the party fights the next election on a promise to scrap the thought police, either as leader or under another individual. I was seeing clearly after that conversation why so many peers don’t count on Klees to follow through on his words.
More important for pro-lifers, today this report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was brought to my attention. I know Derek Filderbrandt quite well and he is both a hard-working individual who takes pride in getting his facts straight, and is also an individual of no small integrity. So if Derek is posting up on his blog a citation from Frank Klees that the candidate will not commit to remove unnecessary/elective health procedure funding from the provincial taxpayer’s burden, even as he’s telling pro-lifers that he’ll fight for him, I trust Filderbrandt’s word over Klees’.
So with two weeks left in this race, and only one before voting starts, we need Frank Klees to clearly come out on how exactly he will fight for the family without stopping the funding for one of the most horrific practices in the modern world. More importantly, he’ll have to explain how an alleged social conservative can even be effective when his reputation isn’t the cleanest to begin with!
Footnote: The full Frank Klees report can be downloaded here.
I know what I think of Frank Klees. When I tuned into a radio show and heard him speaking without at first knowing whom was speaking, I thought he was a liberal. He reminds me of a smooth-talking, career politician.
I want the OHRC gone. I’m voting for Hillier.
We’ll get killed in an election if eliminating the human rights tribunal is on the agenda. The Libs just completely revamped the whole thing (now direct access model, while limiting funding to the Commission) so can say they have addressed the problems. I am all for advocating conservative principles in a campaign but this one has LOSER written all over it. I’m supporting Christine.
Good post, Matthew. Thanks for the insight.
Personally, I’m still leaning towards Tim Hudak.
Tim would be my second choice. He wants to throw money at education which is all wrong or he’d have been tied in first place with Hillier in my books.
Chris:
You get killed on such campaigns if you don’t properly define what you want to do. The only reason a killing could happen is because of the commission’s name. If you define what it does and create a campaign that focuses on what it does and all its flaws rather than “destroy human rights”, which is far from what it would be actually doing, then you can accomplish a lot of good. Remember, all those rights would still be protected under law, but they would be tried in courts by judges rather than unqualified civil servants without due process.
Good post Vek.
Debate is on TVO NOW!
Go Randy Hillier! Tell it brother!
McGuinty’s push for early childhood education is nothing but nationalized daycare – nationalized babysitting.
He is the ONLY candidate standing up for Conservative principles.
On the surface Tim Hudak and his Progressive Conservative party seem to be all-around nice guys. They are concerned about you and your family and want to do everything they can to help ends meet and ensure your family doesn’t get ripped off by anyone. They are in fact so nice that they are willing to promise an HST rebate on your hydro and gas bill just to show how much they care about your ability to pay for your needed utilities.
What you may not know is that this very same party lead under Mike Harris and Ernie Eves de-regulated the energy sector during their time in power.
Have you ever gotten a knock at your from a representative of an energy reseller such as Universal Energy or Just Energy? They want you to sign up for fixed rate contracts. Does this sound familiar? In fact many people believe that fixed rate energy deals like this are some kind of illegal scam. In fact they are not illegal at all because Harris and Eves passed laws which allow third party companies to make contracts with the consumer and your local utility is required to honour the deal by co-operating with it. Do you remember agents like this coming around before Harris? If you find that the price that you signed up for far greater than the market price, even after you’ve been on it for years there is no legal recourse that will allow you to renege without paying a cancellation fee.
The business plan is called commodity brokering. Companies claim that they buy gas and hydro from the spot market in bulk, at times that its cheapest, natural gas in the summer for instance. Then they sell it back to the consumer at a fixed price. Because natural gas is expensive in the winter, in theory they will be able to sell it back to the consumer for more than the original purchase price but less than the current market price. Thus they can save you money while turning a profit. It all makes sense right?
The argument is logical. Nevertheless many consumers who have signed up for these contracts since the time they were first offered have found that in the long run they lost money, often to the tune of thousands. Where is this money going?
Frank Klees, sitting Progressive Conservative MPP for Newmarket-Aurora is running again in the October 6, 2011 provincial election. He is the guy that came in second to Hudak in the last provincial leadership race. He is a high profile Tory who held cabinet positions under Harris and undoubtedly will again if the Progressive Conservatives make it in this time. The owner of Universal Energy Alternatives underwrote one fifth of his entire campaign with a donation of $34K. Not only did Universal give Klees a big donation, they also gave him a seat on their board of directors. Now that Universal Energy is sold to Just Energy, he has a seat on the board there too. In other words if you want to vote for the guy that comes to your door to sign you up for a price protection plan then Frank Klees and his cronnies, like Hudak are the names you should check on your ballot!