Apolitical Staples

He passed the point of no return a longtime ago on funding for of all religious schools. Caving in now will show that he not only is weak on policy, but also weak on leadership. If his campaign team was smart (and wanted to salvage things), they should have tried to change the channel like McGuinty did with the health tax issue. Make it about McGuinty’s poor record.

Unfortunately, I think it’s too late now. Don’t be surprised to see Tory candidates campaign against their leader to save their own political hide.

At last. I have been waiting for a posting from the real brains of the Staples house, for years. ;)

He hasn’t made the announcement yet. Before we condemn him for backing down (which I’m told he’s not doing) we should wait for him to speak.

Don’t believe the Liberal Pre-Spin.

Hey there! We met in a pub in Waterloo once. You really do sound like your husband, by the way—truly a match made in heaven. :-)

This was the issue holding Tory and the Conservatives back - with this out of the way we should see some movement in the numbers back to Tory. Hope it’s not too late!

I would put my local PC candidate’s sign on my lawn if only it didn’t say “Your John Tory Candidate”. No thanks.

That being said, I totally understand what he’s doing. Throwing religious school supporters under the bus (ouch, that hurts) to try to keep McGuinty to a minority government. If Tory doesn’t pick up 15 seats and Don Valley West, he’s out as PC leader. This policy is absolutely killing him. This is a desperate move. He is giving up on winning. He is dropping the most talked about and hated policy and not showing LEADERSHIP. He will begin 10 days of negative advertising against McGuinty. He IS trying to change the channel. In the end though, he may end up shooting the TV. Sure he looks like a hypocrite. However, the Catholic school system supporting McGuinty has been a hypocrite the entire campaign and it’s BENEFITTED him.

It became an issue because of McGuinty’s “grab Ontarians by the ear-lobes” over-reaction. Tory gambled that Ontarians sense of fair-ness would trump their innate bigotry and intolerance. The gamble didn’t pay off. Kudos to Tory for trying make a dull listless campaign more interesting and meaningful.

As I noted in an earlier post, absent some corruption scandal, the only way for Tory to win was for Hampton’s campaign to take off. Hampton flopped again so it will be a Liberal win. The end result will have little or nothing to do with Tory’s education stance.

The result will be the expected result (Liberal re-election) but what’s different now is that McGuinty has seriously insulted and alienated the religious minorities who previously could be relied on to support the Liberals (who knew that it was the Liberals, not the PCs, who are the WASP Party?) How this will work out politically in the future only time will tell.

If the Liberals win (as I expect) I will never have been more ashamed of Ontario.

Soory, I disagree. John Tory was bleeding his traditional support. This move allows many long-time PC supporters to come back home where they belong.

In the long run, this will hurt the Liberals who no longer can claim they represent the new immigrants.

I’m willing to lay odds that if Tory fails to win his seat on Oct 10, he will be a candidate for federal Conservatives in the next election and will be a minister in Harper’s next cabinet.

According to SES, the liberals are rising in the polls at the NDP’s expense. If John Tory can scare Ontario NDP voters into going liberal, think of the Harper effect…

Does anybody want to wager that Rick Mercer spoofs Tory and his stance on FARS?

Given the way Harper has behaved for the last 10 months, inviting a dim milquetoast like Tory into the party would be completely ridiculous making it almost a safe bet

John Tory’s entire campaign was based on the fact that leadership matters and that Mr. McGuinty has been flip flopping on issues.

Actually no. The difference is that McGuinty made flambouyant promises which got him elected and then about-faced the nano-second accountability could not be applied. Tory about-faced with time for the electorate to make decisions that will count. That is a very clear distintion that, while not exhonerating the Tory campaign from bad judgement, does not fall anywhere near the wilful transgressions committed by McGuinty.

If your definition of leadership is that someone cannot change their mind or change course given an unanticipated change in circumstances then please don’t ever look me up if you’re in need of financing to start a business.