Last night, the Ontario Conservative Party leadership hopefuls debated at Ottawa University.
OK – I have to declare my personal bias: while I am not a member of any political party, I like Randy Hillier – and have liked him long before this leadership race started. I like what he stands for and I like the way he stands for it. Also, I am not a fan of the only leadership-hopeful who is a fan of the OHRC (whose federal counterpart has, BTW, just rejected their own reviewer’s call to clean up their act), Ms. Elliot.
This morning, I had the pleasure of being invited to the ‘post-debate’ breakfast with Tim Hudak.
Very interesting.
Of the conservative leadership candidates, Mr. Hudak is philosophically the closest to Mr. Hillier. Here’s a quick summary (from my point of view):
- Human Rights Commissions – bad
- Rule of law – good
- Nanny state – bad
- Individual freedoms – even in the workplace – good
- Dalton McGuinty – bad
- Tax cuts – good
Can’t really argue against that!
And, I do like the nifty little quote on his website:
“For too long, individual rights have been trampled by a dysfunctional human rights bureaucracy… and the democracy of our unionized workplaces has been eroded.”
– Tim Hudak
I must admit, in person, Mr. Hudak made a very good impression on me.
Despite the early hour – following a long and exhausting evening, he was bright and fresh and smiling and pleasant. Abandoning the microphone, he preferred to use his voice directly. Always a good move – if the venue allows it.
And he spoke well. He said all the ‘right’ pre-canned things, as is to be expected, touching on the his main campaign platforms. I was pleasantly surprised to find he sounded more conservative – and less ‘watered down’ – than I had expected. He even mentioned Ronals Regan! That is always a hit conservatives – and it certainly scored him points with this breakfast crowd.
This is important: if the people I talked to were representative of the whole group, many of them have not yet decided whom they will vote for when the time to elect a new leader comes. Many were weighing the Mike Harris endorsment of Tim (good) against the rumours that he has inherited a lot of the ‘John Tory people’ (bad). Many liked Randy Hillier, but worried about his electability in the Greater Toronto Area.
The main issues on people’s minds? Scrap the HRCs, lower taxes, fire the nanny and replace it with a state which respects people’s individual rights…. There might have been more, but these were what I heard most often and most loudly.
Still, I find it hard to gage people at these types of things. Things are all prepared, rehearsed, people know they are ‘on the record’ and so it’s hard to separate the ‘personna’ from the ‘person’ – if you know what I mean. So, despite the fact I quite liked Tim Hudak, I was not sure of my judgment.
Kids, on the other hand, are very good at judging a person!
Luckily, there was a lone kid at this breakfast. Lisa MacLeod had dragged along her young daughter, Victoria (then promptly left her to find entertainment on her own, while she herself went to schmooze talk to important people). Looking for someone to help her from her boredom, little Victoria turned to – you guessed it – Tim Hudak!
It was easy to see that Victoria knew him – and liked him. And, she obviously trusted him – and knew he would talk to her. Which he did. He got down to her level, so she could talk to him eye-to-eye, and instead of brushing her off, he actually talked to her. Until, that is, her mom ushered her away…
And, while I think (and I am not alone) that the endorsment by Lisa MacLeod is more likely going to hurt Tim Hudak in this leadership race than help him, the genuine endorsement by Ms. MacLeod Jr. is a strong plus for Mr. Hudak.
At least – in my never-humble-opinion, that is!
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