Some Advice for John Tory

Leader of the Opposition at Queen's Park and the Ontario PC Party, John Tory, may want to distance himself from Stephen Harper, PM of Canada, to avoid Harper's partisanship besmirching his reputation.

I admire Tory. I was impressed when he took on the seemingly impossible task of civilizing the legislature and actually had an effect. I appreciate his reasoned approach to issues, and though he's made the odd mistake, overall I find him the kind of leader I'd like to have.

But I worry over him being too cosy with a PM who's shown himself to be a rude, ruthless hypocrite. I worry that as Premier, he won't stand up to Harper, on behalf of Ontarians, because of Harper's penchant for excoriating his enemies, that is, anyone who disagrees with him or is not a conservative and Tory not wanting to find himself on the outs in the party. I find Harper's approach to his office so awful that I'd actually vote Liberal (shudder) if there's no NDP or credible Green Party alternative. I certainly would federally, and now with Tory's meetings (plural) with Harper, maybe even provincially. As time goes by, I'm becoming even more offended by Harper flipping the bird to us by snubbing our Premier (and cosying up to Quebec not just because he wants to prove that he's better at federal relations than the Liberals, but also because Jean Charest is a fellow conservative and former leader of the federal PC party; he also seems to think he has Ontario in the bag -- what is it with federal leaders who assume Ontario will vote their way? Have we proven ourselves to be such patsies?)

If I was Tory, I'd avoid Harper from now on. I'd use evasion tactics to force Harper to meet with our Premier instead of him. And I'd ensure Harper kept his distance in the next provincial election.

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