A Hot Political Conservative summer

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East As the weather starts to improve, leaving the cold days of winter behind, and Nature renews itself in splendor, the conservatives face new challenges. Let us first look at the provincial election just called in Ontario, where the provincial conservatives lead by Doug Ford are seeking re-election as the governing party. The parties in competition for the governing job are the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC), Liberals, NDP, Greens and the New Blue Party of Ontario. The latter is a newcomer on the provincial political scene, and as usual, is being ignored by the established elite media, despite the fact that they have successfully registered candidates in all 124 electoral districts. So be it! With the pandemic winding down and people starting to resume some semblance of a normal life, the provincial election campaign is gearing up for the June 2nd election. The established parties seem to be in competition on promising many things, essentially trying to buy the votes of the electors. In this quest, the PC Party lead by the fearless Doug Ford, is far and away outdoing everybody. In his spending spree promises on various gigantic projects, the conservative way he is supposed to represent is long forgotten. The traditional conservative way of trying to spend wisely and working to balance the budget as soon as possible is out the window. The proposed conservative spending blueprint looks like a copycat of the governing Liberals' federal spending. Just one day before the provincial election was called, Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford stood together in friendship, to announce federal and provincial support for a $3.6-billion investment in auto plants in Windsor and Brampton to produce electric vehicles. Does anyone remember the fact that just three years ago, it suited Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Ford to make war on each other over the Liberal carbon tax? But this is what politics has devolved to nowadays; promise anything to be elected, and afterward conveniently forget whatever was promised. Just remember, four years ago, Doug Ford offered Ontarians $1 beers if they installed his Progressive Conservatives in government. And he delivered, though only briefly: The cheapest six-pack in Upper Canada today, costs a shocking $9.30. This time around, the swag in the PC loot bag comes with many trailing zeroes, and many goodies are transportation-themed: $1.1 billion to scrap licence-plate renewal fees; $645 million to cut the gasoline tax; $6 billion to build a new highway around Brampton. The government recently axed tolls on two GTA highways and so on. With all this said, good luck to you in the provincial election. Choose wisely! On the other hand, the federal conservatives are involved in another leadership contest. This is the third one after the electoral defeats of 2015, 2019 and 2021. Let us hope that this time they will choose wisely, because the next leader will have three more years to wait in the wings and hone his skills before the Liberal-NDP pact will allow an election to occur. The candidates for the Conservative Party leadership are Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, Haldimand-Norfolk MP Leslyn Lewis, Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison, and former Ontario MPP Roman Baber. The Conservatives will announce their next leader on September 10. As the candidates are gearing up to convince Conservative Party members to vote for them in the leadership contest they are also careful to convince the general electorate that the Conservative Party is also ready to govern. We will see a lot of campaigning from the candidates during the summer with many new political issues appearing on the horizon both nationally and internationally. It should be noted that the perceived front runner in the conservative leadership contest at this time is Pierre Poilievre. It seems that his messages are well received by Conservative Party members and the public in general. Young, experienced, well prepared and energetic, he is a real asset for the Conservative Party. Along with other candidates and useful debates to follow, let us hope that a more energetic, truly conservative principled, newly reborn Conservative Party will emerge from the race, to soon lead the country. The previous two leaderships should be forgotten, as they were teetering and completely abandoned the basics on which the Conservative Party was built. With this said I invite you to follow the Conservative Party leadership contest campaign, hoping that better days will follow for Canada, that will preserve our history and traditions. Get ready for a long and hot political summer!