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Ontario's New Government: More Progressive Than Conservative

LifeSite Special Report

TORONTO, May 17, 2002 (lsn.ca) - In the recent leadership race, say Ontario Progressive Conservatives, the party faced a clear choice between (a.) adopting moderate positions that would shift the party towards the political centre, and (b.) adhering to the proven election-winning formula of staking out bold positions on the right.

Former deputy premier Jim Flaherty was slow at first to take strong conservative stances, particularly on life issues, notes Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition. But the Flaherty campaign eventually did so with increasing strategic acumen during the race, climbing from 6% support in December to 38.6% at the leadership convention. In March 2002, Flaherty stood out as the province's small-c conservative standard-bearer.

Now, it is clear from news reports that Flaherty is out of the decision-making loop. He was given what many see as a marginal "innovation" portfolio. His former opponent, Premier Ernie Eves, is far more likely to seek advice from liberal Tories Elizabeth Witmer and Janet Ecker and most of all from ex-MPP Isabel Bassett, his ultra-liberal live-in partner of a few years,

"I am a pragmatist," Eves said on entering the leadership race, "I am not an ideologue, I am not right wing, I am not left wing, I am someone who is fiscally responsible with a large social conscience."

IGNORANT OF COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE POLICY

Eves "wants to be seen as more compassionate" than his predecessor, Mike Harris, wrote the Toronto Star's Ellie Tesher on April 23. The problem is that Red Tories, like Liberals and the NDP, equate "compassion" with government programs. And Eves, Witmer and Ecker all showed during the leadership race that they do not understand the "compassionate conservative" approach to social policy.

When Flaherty proposed a subsidiarity approach to homelessness and poverty -- one that would empower charities and the private sector to take care of people now forced onto the streets -- all his opponents exploited the situation and declared that Flaherty "lacked compassion."

TORIES RE-ELECTION PROSPECTS ARE QUESTIONABLE

The lack of genuine compassionate conservatism and the Eves Tories' disdain for social conservatives are two reasons why they stand to lose the next election. "He can't win an election without social conservatives, whether or not he realizes that," says Jim Hughes, who expects the premier to "attempt to reach out" to so-cons before election time.

Eves has stood by his promise not to scrap Flaherty's Equality in Education Tax Credit, despite declaring last December that the credit could lead to intolerance. "I am not against choice in the education system," Eves said, "but I am in favour of some very basic standards. Are you in favour of a school that doesn't teach any basic curriculum and teaches hatred?" Since over two-thirds of existing private schools are parish-based, the remark seemed inflammatory. As well, the standards that Eves is referring to appear to emphasize he would force independent schools to indoctrinate students with the usual destructive social engineering that many public schools have imposed for years. As for academic standards, the independent schools are mostly way ahead of the public sector. Parents pay those schools for their children's education. If the academics aren't good the parents won't pay and pull out the kids.

Nonetheless, Eves believes it is necessary to tighten eligibility. "Working together with parents,"(those opposed to independent schools?) said the recent Throne Speech, "your government will design a means of measuring the progress of students in core subjects..." This implies testing, but it was left unclear how interventionist this might be. What will interventionist testing mean for parents' freedom of choice?

WHAT MAKES THE PREMIER TICK?

Other influences on the new premier, as the Toronto Star's Ian Urquhart reported in February, include former assistant Isabel Bassett, 62, who encouraged him to run. Urquhart revealed that the "power couple" had been living together since 2001, Eves referring to her in November as "my partner in life... in every sense of the word."

Eves has no problem with abortion. As the Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson wrote on April 20, 2000, "Back in the 1980s, when the Liberals were in power, a back-bench MPP named Ernie Eves broke with his party to vote in support of publicly funded women's health centres, which performed abortions." On November 15, 2001, the National Post reported that "Eves ... attempted to make abortion a campaign issue, reminding voters that he broke with Conservative ranks to support a Liberal abortion-rights bill in the 1980s."

The premier is not entirely liberal in his outlook - or at least he didn't used to be. Along with most opposition Tories, in 1994 Eves voted against the Bob Rae NDP's notorious Bill 167, the so-called Equality Rights Statute Law Amendment Act, which would have legally equated homosexual relationships with marriage, including adoption.

WHITER SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES?

Recent defeats and inadequate candidates at the federal and provincial levels make it even more difficult to persuade social conservatives to get involved in politics, says Hughes, especially when one considers media determination to bring down candidates who show any promise.

However, many social conservatives believe that recent campaigns such as the first Stockwell Day leadership run merely "scratched the surface" in terms of potential support. People weren't so keen the second time around for Day.

Hughes says that Flaherty was a tough sell. "It was almost impossible because of earlier campaign statements" and his attempt to offer little more than the Equal Education Tax Credit.

"But Flaherty shows promise," Hughes maintains, should Eves fail to win the next election. "Flaherty has certainly got point position to win the next leadership race," Hughes says.

He continued, "in many cases the biggest problem is our own people, the unwillingness of people whose party ties are so strong because of grandparents and an often irrational loyalty to a voting tradition. They will on occasion refuse to support a pro-abortion candidate but then easily backslide and will vote for the liberal because he is a nice person. It's hard to get through to them. They are often more concerned about less important social and economic issues than the destruction of respect for human life in our culture.

Eves quotes when he entered the race
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thes...
le_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1005779090162

To read Toronto Star coverage of "Ontario's power couple" see:
http://www.friendscb.org/articles/TorontoStar/torontostar020...

Ernie Eves Man of the People by Frank Kennedy
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/2002/feb/kennedy.html

Ontario Premier Says That Eves Warning About "Hate" in Private Schools is "Irrelevant"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/dec/01122103.html

Eves Comes Out Swinging Against Parental Choice in Education Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/dec/011218.html

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