[waterloowarrior]

Hillier announces run for Ontario PC leadership


BY LEE GREENBERG, THE OTTAWA CITIZENMARCH 30, 2009


TORONTO – Firebrand MPP Randy Hillier, a right wing politician from eastern Ontario, announced Monday he will seek the top job of the provincial Conservative party.

The 50-year-old libertarian billed himself as a smart, principled leader, “one who knows how to overcome adversity … rather than making excuses and pointing fingers.â€

Hiller says as leader he would abolish the Ontario Human Rights Commission, force Ontario to elect its federal Senators and introduce a bill allowing workers to opt out of unions or representative groups. He gave the example of physicians, who he says are compelled to join the Ontario Medical Association.

Hillier was born in Ottawa and worked as an electrician before co-founding a popular libertarian landowner group in 2003. As leader of the Lanark Landowners Association (later the Ontario Landowners Association) he railed against excessive government regulation in all aspects of rural life.

Hillier parlayed that popularity into a seat at Queen’s Park, gaining election in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington in 2007.

John Tory stepped down as provincial PC party leader earlier this month, after an embarrassing by-election loss. The party will elect a new leader at a convention in Markham in late June.

Hillier lives in Perth with his wife Jane. The couple have four children.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


http://www.hillierforleader.com/

 

[ShonTron]

Woo-hoo!

The 50-year-old libertarian billed himself as a smart, principled leader, “one who knows how to overcome adversity … rather than making excuses and pointing fingers.”

Excuses like "it's all Toronto's fault?

Bring him on! GO RANDY!

 

[lordmandeep]

he won by less then 1000 votes, hardly a success imo.



However it appears though who ever wins on the Tory side, its going to be one of those angry loud mouth conservative types the Stephen Harper has hidden on his backbench.

 

[waterloowarrior]

Woo Hoo!

Yee Haw!


also another entrant.. Frank Klees. Looks like PVL isn't entering

Hillier joins Klees in bid for PC leadership race

Updated: Mon Mar. 30 2009 6:30:29 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Right-wing rookie Randy Hillier added his name to the ballot for leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives on Monday, joining his more moderate caucus colleague Frank Klees in taking a run at the party's top job.

Casting himself as the "libertarian with a strong moral conscience," Hillier said he is the right leader to steer the party and the province back to true conservatism, including smaller government, fewer regulations and a more participatory democracy.

"We have become a nanny state of dependence," said Hillier, who was first elected in 2007 in the rural eastern Ontario riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.

"We are no longer responsible for our actions, when we allow ourselves to blame others for them."

In launching his campaign, Hillier vowed to bring Senate elections to Ontario and ban compulsory memberships in unions and other professional associations.

He also promised to abolish the Ontario Human Rights Commission -- established in 1961 by a Progressive Conservative government -- and have human rights cases heard in "real" courts.

The three principles that will anchor his campaign -- freedom, justice and democracy -- will appeal to both rural and vote-rich urban areas, he said.

"I believe that talking about these essential ingredients -- freedom, justice and democracy -- are not exclusive to rural Ontario," said Hillier, 51, who was joined by his wife Jane, 49, and two of their four children.

"I believe everyone in this province thirsts for those essential ingredients."

Largely considered to be the most right-wing member of the Tory caucus, the former electrician and federal government employee is no stranger to controversy.

Hillier is perhaps best known as the former president of the Lanark Landowners Association, which once sent a picture of a dead deer to Liberal cabinet minister Leona Dombrowsky with her name written on the photo.

In the lead-up to the 2007 provincial election, Hillier threatened to run his own slate of Independent candidates in some rural ridings if former leader John Tory blocked his nomination as a Conservative.

Even in launching his leadership bid Monday, Hillier was bending the rules.

He made the announcement from the legislature's media studio, even though its guidelines forbid presentations that contain party leadership campaign material.

Hillier dismissed suggestions that his reputation for headline-grabbing publicity stunts as a rural activist has branded him a political extremist with mainstream voters.

"Does anybody here feel fearful of being here with this extremist up here, with my family?" he asked reporters.

"I learned a long time ago that I don't believe everything I read in the papers or hear in the press. And I certainly don't believe everything I hear from a politician."

But for all the controversy that has surrounded Hillier over the years, he's barely made "a peep" since he joined the Opposition benches, said deputy premier George Smitherman.

"Since that election, he's barely made a mark or had a presence around here," he said.

"I think he's asked one, maybe two questions, and those were about Tibet. He's elected by the people in his riding -- you have to have respect for that -- but mostly he's been a no-show."

Klees, who announced his leadership campaign over the weekend, said he disagrees with Hillier's promise to get rid of the human rights commission.

The party needs to return to its glory days when it ruled Ontario for 42 years, back when the hallmarks of the party were fiscal conservatism and social responsibility, he said.

But it also needs a strong leader who can take on the role quickly ahead of the next provincial election in 2011, he added.

"What is different is my experience," said Klees, a former businessman who has sat in the legislature for 14 years.

"I think this is not just about winning the leadership of the party, it's about being ready to step into the responsibilities of premiership."

Klees, who represents the riding of Newmarket-Aurora north of Toronto, came in third in the 2004 leadership race that Tory won.

Tim Hudak and Christine Elliott are also expected to be on the ballot to replace Tory as party leader at a June 27 convention in Markham, Ont.

Federal Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, who was rumoured to be testing the waters, has all but ruled out a bid.

"As I've said many times, I'm very focused on my job as public safety minister," he said Monday.

Tory decided to step down as leader after losing a byelection to his Liberal opponent Rick Johnson in the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock on March 5.

 

[kEiThZ]

Truly sad. That's the end of the Ontario PC party. Might as well change the name and call it the reform party.

John Tory was the last conservative of that Bill Davis mold. With him out, all we'll get are yahoos like Hillier. I still can't believe this nutjob shares the same name as a much more honourable Canadian.

 

[lordmandeep]

lol...

I just remembered Tory lost to some School board Member...

It still gives me the giggles.


Tory was a moderate and I shared some of his view sbut he was just an idiot.


Tim Hudak could have a chance against cool head Mcgunity, however having to big of a mouth is a liability.

Well unless your running with Barrack Obama. The stuff Biden said....

 

[adma]

he won by less then 1000 votes, hardly a success imo.

And in a seat which, federally, has been Scott Reid's ultra-safe stronghold. Clearly, Hillier met a divided reception at the ballot box.

 

[adma]

Truly sad. That's the end of the Ontario PC party. Might as well change the name and call it the reform party.

There's already a fringey provincial Reform party. Though I suppose any dropping of the "P" in "PC" will only be a formality that coordinates things with the federal wing. (And AFAIK Red Tories like Bill Davis haven't ceased to support the federal Conservatives, even without the "Progressive" in their label.)

 

[waterloowarrior]

Any UT bear hunters will be happy with Mr. Hiller's latest policy announcement

a hiller story in the star



Looks like Hudak and Elliott will announce in the next few days

Hudak to enter Ont. PC leadership race Thursday; Elliott on Friday
17 hours ago
CP - http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gNUqG8aMYh888NPkyb7nwfvWQWNw

TORONTO — The race to replace John Tory as leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservatives will expand to four candidates this week.
The Canadian Press has learned that Tim Hudak will formally announce his campaign Thursday with a news conference at the Ontario legislature. And Whitby-Oshawa MPP Christine Elliott has issued a statement saying she will officially launch her campaign on Friday.
Hudak, who holds a Niagara-area seat and is his party's finance critic, already has about half of the 24 caucus members in his corner.
Frank Klees and Randy Hillier earlier announced their intentions to try to succeed Tory as party leader in a vote to be held in mid-June.
Tory resigned last month after losing a Lindsay-area byelection and his successor will be announced at a convention in Markham on June 27.

 

[waterloowarrior]

PC leadership could be a battle of the right-wingers: experts
April 01, 2009
MARIA BABBAGE
THE CANADIAN PRESS
No matter who ends up claiming the Ontario Progressive Conservative crown, the battle to replace John Tory will end up pushing the party back to the ideological right, experts say.

All four candidates who have emerged so far – Tim Hudak, Christine Elliott, Frank Klees and Randy Hillier – are more or less cut from the same conservative cloth, said Bryan Evans, a politics professor at Toronto's Ryerson University.

"There's no old-fashioned Red Tory running, there's nobody who hearkens back to the Bill Davis, Big Blue Machine era like John Tory did, like Ernie Eves did," he said.

"What we're going to be looking at will be a leadership contest defined by the right wing of the party and whomever emerges – of the current field of candidates anyway – will clearly push the party to much more solidly conservative, right-wing positions."

The slate of right-wing candidates may be a sign that the influence of the Red Tories – the more centrist Conservatives who dominated the party in the 1970s and '80s – has waned following Tory's unsuccessful leadership.

The party shifted more to the centre after former premier Mike Harris, a political hero to the party's neo-conservatives, stepped down in 2002.

But it seems to be swinging back to the right, partly because Tory failed to sell a more moderate, centrist vision of the party, Evans said.

The Conservatives thought they were getting a winner in Tory, someone who would appeal to urban voters and take back some of the ground in the political centre that the Liberals have jealously guarded for years, he said.

When the party lost the 2007 election – largely because of Tory's controversial and ill-fated promise to extend public funding to religious schools – the experiment was officially over, even though Tory hung in for more than a year, Evans added.

The party is now back to where it was in the lead-up to Harris's Common Sense Revolution, a controversial agenda that saw his government cut taxes and slash spending in Ontario, including a 22 per cent reduction in welfare rates.

"Will it be a complete photocopy? No, it won't be that because they know `been there, done that,"' Evans said.

"But they're going to take their lessons from that period and try to reapply them. They'll be re-engineered, reshaped, remarketed."

Many of the architects of the Common Sense Revolution, including Harris himself, have already anointed 41-year-old finance critic Tim Hudak as the party's next leader, observers say.

The Niagara-area member, who is married to Harris's former chief of staff Deb Hutton, also has about half of the 24-member caucus in his corner.

Norm Miller – son of former premier Frank Miller – Julia Munro, Garfield Dunlop and Lisa MacLeod have all endorsed Hudak.

Elliott, who is married to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, is largely considered to be Hudak's biggest threat.

She will be launching her own bid on Friday from her riding of Whitby-Oshawa and is expected to have the support of a few caucus members.

The lawyer and mother of triplet boys, who was elected in 2006 and serves as the party's justice critic, has distanced herself from her husband's more right-wing views.

She supports gay rights and opposes tax harmonization, even though Flaherty has long pushed for Ontario to merge its sales tax with the federal GST.

Longtime party activist and former cabinet minister Janet Ecker, who is orchestrating Elliott's campaign, said Elliott is a fiscal conservative who believes in helping others.

"She has a strong record as an advocate for the vulnerable, but she does not see that as incompatible with fiscal conservativism, and they're both very much a part of the heritage she believes in," Ecker said.

"People like to start pegging candidates as left or right, but it's not about left or right, certainly in her view."

Like Elliott, Klees has also spoken favourably about marrying fiscal conservatism and social responsibility.

But the 58-year-old businessman, former cabinet minister and 14-year veteran of the legislature also favours two-tier health care and once considered a bid for leadership of the Canadian Alliance party.

Klees, who has an endorsement from Thornhill member Peter Shurman, is taking a second run at the top job after losing in the 2004 race that saw Tory crowned as leader.

Hillier, as self-described libertarian who wants to scrap the Ontario Human Rights Commission, will likely make a splash in the race, but observers say he has virtually no support among caucus members.

The 51-year-old rural affairs critic, who was first elected in 2007 in the eastern Ontario riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, is no stranger to controversy.

He's perhaps best known as the former president of the Lanark Landowners Association, which sent a picture of a dead deer to Liberal cabinet minister Leona Dombrowsky with her name written on the photo.

Hillier has cast himself as the leader who will steer the party and the province back to true conservatism, including smaller government, fewer regulations and a more participatory democracy.

Tory resigned last month after he lost a March 5 byelection in the central Ontario riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.

His successor will be announced June 27 at the party's leadership convention in Markham.

18:04ET 01-04-09

 

[lordmandeep]

Tim Hudak is likely the biggest risk to Dalton and could really get a lot of popular support. However Dalton appears to be a decent strategist when it comes to elections and knows he has to show him to be a radical and show himself being moderate.


I also do not know if its good idea to have two women run against one man...

 

[afransen]

I don't think hard-right positions are going to sell, especially if they are too evocative of the Common Sense Revolution. I'll bet Dalton was more worried about moderate John Tory than a very conservative opponent. The Liberal's soft spot will probably be their unwillingness to reign in spending, but if the PCs campaign on spending cutbacks, I expect that it will fall flat.

I've lived in Hudak's riding. I don't particularly care for the man. His comments in the press haven't impressed me.

 

[lordmandeep]

Hudak could drown himself for having to big of a mouth.

Harris hate or love him did control his temper and his mouth...

 

[kEiThZ]

I don't think hard-right positions are going to sell, especially if they are too evocative of the Common Sense Revolution.

We'll see. When this recession ends, people will start to demand fiscal prudence again and they might even start demanding smaller government. The size of government today has reached the highest level in the post-war era. There was an article about that in today's Post (19.6% of labour force in the public sector vs. ~18% in the 80s). Sooner or later, people might get fed up with that. Combine that with the fact that public servants who are nearly all unionized get significantly better pay and benefits, and many are demanding more during this recession.

Perhaps, there's no appetite for slashing welfare and social service. But there might be some out there who will want the growth of government to at least be constrained ... And then there's those nanny state laws. The more people start get hitting by them, the more the public is going to grow in its distaste for them.

7 years of deficits...6 in reality if you exclude the 'buffer'. Combine that with significant tax increases. Keep in mind the election is only months after the harmonization of sales taxes. It'll be interesting to see how people react when their gas bills, heating bills, phone bills, internet bills all go up. I am betting the bribe money won't necessarily do enough.

I'll bet Dalton was more worried about moderate John Tory than a very conservative opponent. The Liberal's soft spot will probably be their unwillingness to reign in spending, but if the PCs campaign on spending cutbacks, I expect that it will fall flat.

Exactly. In the end, guys like me would only vote for a real compassionate conservative (not the neo con types who pretend) like John Tory. Any of these other yahoos will earn Dalton not just my vote but my donations as well to keep them out of office.

 

[afransen]

We'll see. When this recession ends, people will start to demand fiscal prudence again and they might even start demanding smaller government. The size of government today has reached the highest level in the post-war era. There was an article about that in today's Post (19.6% of labour force in the public sector vs. ~18% in the 80s). Sooner or later, people might get fed up with that. Combine that with the fact that public servants who are nearly all unionized get significantly better pay and benefits, and many are demanding more during this recession.

Perhaps, there's no appetite for slashing welfare and social service. But there might be some out there who will want the growth of government to at least be constrained ... And then there's those nanny state laws. The more people start get hitting by them, the more the public is going to grow in its distaste for them.

7 years of deficits...6 in reality if you exclude the 'buffer'. Combine that with significant tax increases. Keep in mind the election is only months after the harmonization of sales taxes. It'll be interesting to see how people react when their gas bills, heating bills, phone bills, internet bills all go up. I am betting the bribe money won't necessarily do enough.




Exactly. In the end, guys like me would only vote for a real compassionate conservative (not the neo con types who pretend) like John Tory. Any of these other yahoos will earn Dalton not just my vote but my donations as well to keep them out of office.

If anything, I think a good hard-right opposition will provide Dalton some cover to rationalize government. It could be similar to Chretien's Reform opposition having no criticism but "More, faster" to his budget cutting.

I think Dalton's bigger worry going forward is likely the resurgence of the federal Liberals and the chance they may unseat Harper before the next provincial election.