Forget Premier Dalton McGuinty’s broken promises
and all those warnings medicare is collapsing—Ontario has a deeper
worry. This is how it will cope if one of its political parties
chooses a leader with the same name as his party.
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| name="valign" top > ERIC DOWD |
It could happen because the Progressive
Conservatives will pick a leader in September to replace former
premier Ernie Eves and most observers say the likely choice is John
Tory.
He is a longtime back room worker whose
attractions include being moderate, unconnected to the last two
tarnished, far-right Conservative governments, and having links to
business that could raise money.
Tory’s surname also has been another name for
Conservative for two centuries and newspapers use it often,
particularly because it is shorter and easier to fit in a
headline.
The possibilities for confusion are immense.
Papers have reported Tory leads in Conservative race, which seems
superfluous because a Tory would have to lead. It could not be a
Liberal or New Democrat.
If John Tory wins, papers will have headlines
like Tory wins Conservative leadership, which similarly sounds
repetitious.
John Tory’s rivals have criticized him for his
centrist policies and this has produced headlines such as Tory
accused of being Liberal, which may confuse some.
If John Tory becomes leader, one of his burdens
will be his name. Tory has become a four-letter word to many,
because the governments of Eves and
particularly his predecessor, Mike Harris, cut
services and directed millions to political friends.
New revelations of their misdeeds still fall out
of closets constantly and John Tory would have to overcome
reminders such as Tory lobbyists raked
in cash and Tory insiders got untendered
contracts at least in the short term.
Ontario parties sometimes have found it
advantageous to play down their parties’ names in elections,
because of their shortcomings or those of their federal parties to
which some voters link them.
Candidates running under Harris before his bloom
faded tended to have lawn signs urging Vote Harris rather than Vote
Conservative, because Brian Mulroney when prime minister made his
party unpopular.
But a party led by John Tory would not have as
many options to disguise, because it might not help to switch signs
from Vote Conservative to Vote Tory.
Individual candidates also have found changing
their names useful. Durable Tory (sorry, Conservative) premier
William Davis ran in his early elections as William G. Davis.
But in the 1971 election, he put his name forward
as Bill Davis, because the NDP candidate running against him in his
riding was Neil Davis. The premier, leaving nothing to chance,
wanted to be first on the ballot.
No candidate with the surname Tory has run in an
Ontario election before and only a handful of people named Tory are
listed in Ontario phone directories, so the odds against one
leading a political party are huge.
The term Tory is sometimes seen as
ultra-conservative, but it was used originally to describe those
who supported the right of a Roman Catholic to succeed to the
throne in Britain.
Later it was used to describe a party that had
become broadly representative of the interests of the country
gentry, merchant classes and existing administration, as distinct
from those of dissenters and reformers.
Ontario’s news media will seize any opportunity
to play on John Tory’s name if the Conservatives choose him
leader.
They recently awakened to the impact they can
cause by giving a slight twist to names. Their descriptions of the
Liberals as “Fiberals” and “hypo-Grits,” after they broke promises
to avoid tax increases and balance the budget, have become part of
the language.
But the bright ray is someone named Tory someday
running to lead another party. This raises the prospect of
headlines such as Tory seeks to head Liberals or Tory attacks
Tories. Now that would be really confusing.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s
Park press gallery.
