John Tory and a seat in the House

The Orangeville Citizen has written an editorial suggesting Harpoon or McGuinty should now help out John Tory by getting him into the Pink Palace with all haste. It suggests either man appoint someone like Jim Wilson to an agency, board or commission to open up the safe Tory seat of Simcoe-Grey.

The article builds its case for Wilson and then concludes by saying:

"We're sure that suitable openings are out there, and that both Prime Minister Harper and Premier McGuinty would look good if they took the initiative. A federal appointment would be seen as demonstrating party solidarity, while the offer of a provincial position would portray Mr. McGuinty as chivalrous.

"In the circumstances, we wonder why it has now taken nearly five months for a seat to be opened up, one way or another."

Well, let's see now. The paper suggests Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey, which has now become Dufferin-Caledon shouldn't have to continue playing the role of "home away from home" for successive Party leaders. We don't either and if Tory had stayed there, as he should have, he'd be in the House today.

Thing is, when Tory became Leader, outgoing Leader Ernie Eves stepped down so Tory could run in the by-election that cost taxpayers probably in the neighborhood of $200,000 (my estimate). He then decided to run in a Toronto riding, and although there were much safer seats for him to choose in Toronto, he decided Kathleen Wynne looked like an easy target. Some target. Wynne handed Tory his head in a basket - a 5,000 vote plurality is a drubbing no matter how you slice it.

So now voters should shell out another $200,000 so Tory can get a third kick at the can? Why? Lots of other excellent candidates lost in the election but there is no second chance for them. Sure Tory's the leader but he decided to leave a safe seat, he decided that Wynne was vulnerable (and John, if you haven't fired every single one of your so-called research staff, along with the boobs who thought up policy positions, you don't deserve a seat anywhere) and he eschewed any other possibility in the 22 Toronto ridings. So how exactly does that become our problem and why should we pony up another $200,000?

How about if the Tory Party pays to the government coffers $400,000 to cover the cost of the two by-elections and then we'll talk?

And how about this - if a seat comes vacant through manipulation, Tory ought to have to make a public pledge that he will stay in that seat through the next election. No pledge, no quick by-election and the Premier has lots of time before he needs to call any by-election.

I think Tory should be in the House but this misfortune is of his own making. He had bad advice on policy, he had bad advice on where to run and he had bad advice on how to respond to the leadership vote result a couple of weeks ago. Clearly he needs to get new staff and he needs time at Queen's Park to pull together a formidable team that doesn't shoot itself in the foot. But before we all bow down to Tory, who is a nice guy - no question - we need some indication that this time he'll stay put and cut the crap with running in Toronto.