In the end, maybe caucus had it right. If more than anything else Ontario\u2019s Progressive Conservatives wanted to win on June 7 then maybe they should have stuck with interim leader Vic Fedeli. If the ultra-folksy MPP for Nipissing wasn\u2019t the most compelling imaginable premier-in-waiting, he would certainly have cut a less divisive figure than Doug Ford, who was announced as the party\u2019s new leader late Saturday night in a small room at a Markham conference centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the party members I say thank you. To the people of Ontario I say relief is on its way,\u201d Ford told reporters and campaign workers. \u201cAnd to Kathleen Wynne, I say your days as premier are numbered.\u201d<\/p>\n
That got a massive cheer, of course, but this is an outcome that many in the party consider a worst-case scenario. An Angus Reid poll released this week asked \u201csoft\u201d Tory voters whether each candidate would make them more or less likely to support the party: Ford\u2019s net score (more likely minus less likely) was minus 27 per cent; Christine Elliott, who finished a very narrow second Saturday \u2014 her third failed shot at the position \u2014 was at plus 20.<\/p>\n
Sticking with Fedeli would also have spared the party the hideous embarrassment of Saturday\u2019s botched convention. Vote-counting dragged on for hours thanks to a chunk of ballots that had been allocated to the wrong ridings. A packed crowd of partisans was left in the dark for three hours, then told to hang tight for another 30 minutes, and then sent away into the night with no result. In lieu of a cascade of balloons, there was booing and hollering. Various Ford supporters, citing ostensibly conclusive media reports earlier in the day that Ford had won, alleged party elites were trying to steal it.<\/p>\n
These were not the ideal circumstances in which to build unity, which was the stated purpose of the event. \u201cYou\u2019ve been through a very tough couple of months \u2014 perhaps the toughest times in the history of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario,\u201d Alberta United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney told the crowd. \u201cYou\u2019ve gone through weeks of anxiety and adversity. But I am certain that you will overcome this time of trial, and that this afternoon, with the election of your leader, you will emerge stronger, united and victorious in the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis afternoon,\u201d he said. We were so young then.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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