by Devin Scully
In recent weeks Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown has come under fire for a so-called flip-flop on social conservative issues. In a recent statement, Brown made it known that he regrets courting social conservatives for votes and walked back from his prior opposition to the new sex-ed curriculum, saying earlier concerns with the curriculum have not borne out. Brown went on to walk back from voting to re-open the definition of marriage in 2006, saying it was a time where he was on the wrong side of an issue. Brown’s critics on the left have called it a flip-flop, and social conservative leaders have called it deceitful.
Patrick Brown is right to correct the course and steer the ship into positive waters. Leaders owning up to mistakes may be a foreign concept to many Ontarians. After 13 years of Liberal control of the legislature, many of us seem to have forgotten what honest leadership looks like. When the Premier denies responsibility for a senior official in her party attempting to bribe a candidate – on tape – it is no surprise that people are shocked by a major party leader publicly taking responsibility for past mistakes. We live in an Ontario where it is standard operating procedure to blame governments of past for current problems. A favourite of the Premier is to blame Mike Harris for her own government’s shortcomings.
The Liberal Party is in shambles. The Premier had a 20% approval rating as of September 22, the lowest of any premier in Canada. Her party and her government have been plagued with scandal from gas plants to electoral crimes in the Sudbury by-election, to cash for access fundraisers. This is only the tip of the iceberg. A governing party facing a number of police investigations doesn’t inspire confidence in voters. Ontario’s New Democrats aren’t in much better shape. Despite countless Liberal scandals and the so-called flip-flop in the Ontario PC Party, Andrea Horwath can’t pick up support to pull out of a distant third place in the polls. Disenfranchised Liberals have been fleeing to the PC Party, and not the farther left. Despite negative media attention of late, Patrick Brown has been able to hold a commanding lead in the polls, which lead to PC candidate Raymond Cho winning the Scarborough-Rouge River by-election by a significant margin, and a recent poll showed Patrick Brown’s PCs leading the Liberals by 20 points.
But we now have a PC party lead by a person who not only takes responsibility for recent mistakes but is willing to stand up and apologize for mistakes of 10 years ago. It’s a breath of fresh air for Ontario to have honest leadership, and the political payoff for Brown getting in front of the issue will be substantial. By laying the issue to rest, and distancing himself from the social conservative movement Brown leaves the path clear to earn the trust of moderate conservatives, as well as disenfranchised Liberal and New Democrat voters who may have trouble supporting their traditional parties. Now is the time to make that apology, correct the record and move on. Ontario is faced with real issues – hydro rates, excessive red tape inhibiting business, the wasteful green energy act, Liberal healthcare cuts, just to name a few – and that is where Brown needs to be able to focus his efforts.
Devin Scully is a 3rd-year political science student at Nipissing University and ran for council in the last municipal election.
