Leadership hopeful says Tories need a reset button

Provincial Tory leadership hopeful Patrick Brown says he wants to rebuild the party in Northern Ontario the same way he sold more than 40,000 memberships: hard work and going to places the party has neglected for years.

"For us to be able to defeat the Liberals, we must have a party that has people represented from every walk of life, from every corner of this province," the Barrie MP said Tuesday during a trip to Greater Sudbury. "I really believe there is a Conservative audience in Northern Ontario that has not been tapped into."

He was out knocking on doors in Skead and Falconbridge, ahead of an evening fundraising event at the Marriott on The Kingsway.

"One of the reasons I've criticized the party so heavily the way it was run under the previous leadership was, whether it was showing up in Northern Ontario, which they didn't do, whether it's reaching out to new Canadian communities, which they didn't do, whether it's showing up on campuses and speaking to young people, which they didn't do -- we didn't do the grunt work necessary to build the party."

Brown surprised many people in Tory circles with his success so far, selling thousands more membership than frontrunner Christine Elliott, who has received the endorsements from several sitting MPPs, including North Bay MPP Vic Fedeli.

He's reached out to ethnic communities in southern Ontario, and he says this is his eighth trip north. He's been able to reach people that traditionally have voted either NDP or Liberal.

“In many respects, we were left a playing field uncontested by other candidates,” Brown said. “In some of the places I have gone and sold party memberships -- Cochrane, Moosonee or Fort Frances -- people have told me they haven't seen a Conservative recruitment effort there in years."

Describing himself as a pragmatic and practical conservative, Brown said his vision as leader is a party that is "less confrontational and more conciliatory."

That's a not-so-subtle criticism of former Leader Tim Hudak, whose now infamous promise to cut 100,000 civil service jobs effectively killed any hope the party could win seats in places like Sudbury and Nickel Belt, where public service jobs are a mainstay of the economy.

He had representatives from nursing, police and firefighter unions at his campaign launch in Barrie, Brown said. And if you talk to them, you'll discover they are as much a victim of bad Liberal policies as anyone else, Brown said.

For example, police are directly affected by the lack of mental-health services, because they are forced to deal with failures of the system when a crime occurs. Nurses suffer because long-term care patients sit in hospitals because of a shortage of long-term care beds – even though costs are 10 times higher in hospitals than in nursing homes.

"But this is a Liberal government that hasn't built any long-term care homes during their time in office," he said. “If you listen (to workers in the public sector), you can find ways to make government more effective. And that's my definition of conservative -- being pragmatic and practical.

"I'm proud to have been a member of (Conservative Prime Minster) Stephen Harper's team in Ottawa for the last three terms. No one has ever questioned my Conservative credentials. But I can tell you there's no contradiction between being a proud Conservative and a proud supporter of nurses, paramedics or firefighters."

On Northern-specific issues, Brown said he would commit to improving transportation corridors like Highway 69 because they are vital to developing the economy. As for the Ring of Fire, job No. 1 would be addressing hydro rates, he said, and not trying to blame the federal government for not matching the $1 billion the province has promised.

"The notion that Kathleen Wynne thinks the Prime Minister is going to hand her a blank cheque for $1 billion -- they're not very good with blank cheques down at Queen's Park," he said.

The first thing he would do is tear up the Green Energy Act, which he says is driving up rates while supplying Ontario with energy we don't need.

"We have to get our own house in order. We have to get hydro prices under control if we're going to see the Ring of Fire flourish in a way that I know many of us dream that it can."

Tories will elect their new leader May 9.