Ontario?s new Progressive Conservative leader John Tory is suddenly catching on with voters and it may be because he is not endlessly ranting and raving.
One poll has put his Conservatives level with Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty?s Liberals at 38 percent support and a second has the Liberals at 38 per cent and Conservatives only two percent behind.
The Liberals, only two months ago, were far in the lead with 42 percent, usually enough to win an election, and analysts are puzzled over how to explain this tightening of the race.
The Liberals have not had discernible major setbacks. They had a budget in May that avoided tax increases and since have added a few more planks to their most common theme of expanding protection for the public, which does not cost much money.
Almost their only worry has been a daily reminder they have not secured adequate sources of electricity and could face blackouts because of high use in the hot summer.
Tory also has been leader almost a year and an MPP five months and not set Ontario politics on fire.
He has accused McGuinty of being a spendthrift and having no plan to tackle the energy shortage, but has agreed with the Liberal premier on several major issues, announced few new policies and not differentiated himself much from McGuinty.
Tory nonetheless has felt comfortable enough to spend a couple of weeks in Paris, brushing up his French, in which McGuinty is fluent enough to answer questions.
Tory?s start has been modest, even low-key, but one thing that distinguishes him from most leaders is he goes to great effort to avoid seeming confrontational.
He said he would have more moderate policies than his predecessors as leader, premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, and be closer to William Davis, premier from 1971-85, in whose office he served.
Tory, among examples, readily supported McGuinty in his request for money to narrow the gap between what the federal government collects in taxes from Ontario and what it returns, and even called on his federal party to back the premier.
He is particularly more moderate in style. He called for more civility in the legislature, saying MPPs often heckle so loudly they prevent debates being heard and that includes some of his own members.
Tory made suggestions for easing traffic gridlock that included pulling repair crews off roads during rush hours and towing vehicles quickly from accident scenes, and when the Liberals scoffed these were minor, responded amiably he was merely starting a debate and would welcome others.
Tory at his most pugnacious has said McGuinty?s only plan for coping with power blackouts is to ?tell residents to sit at home in the dark with their air conditioners off and dirty dishes piling up? and Health Minister George Smitherman talks ?b.s.? But he is more likely to disparage Liberal claims as ?a bit
rich,? an odd, mild rebuke reminiscent of upper class English of half-a-century ago.
Tory has avoided the harsher language of Harris, who called a Liberal an ?asshole,? and McGuinty, who is not by nature a back-alley-brawler, but got into scraps with Harris in which each accused the other of lying and has an image of breaking promises which discourages people from warming to him.
Tory also is a relief from federal leaders constantly at each other?s throats. Liberals in Ottawa have offered bribes of jobs to get opponents to join them, so they could cling to power, and the Conservatives are known mostly for threatening to bring down government.
Leaders who were not strident have done well in Ontario, notably Davis, the longest-serving premier of recent years, whose strongest oath was the occasional ?good gracious? and his predecessor, John Robarts, who once called the federal Liberals ?Machiavellian,? but mainly avoided harsh
language.
Tory is trying to follow in this tradition of being a nice guy, but he should remember they also had policies that appealled to voters.
