ANALYSIS: Ontario’s upside-down world

Forgive us poor Upper Canadians, we’re a bit disoriented these days.

The political compass that for 30 years helped us figure left from right has suddenly melted like a watch in a Dali painting. Up is down and black is white.  The Tories want to spend and the Liberals say we can’t afford it.

It’s enough to give us poor punters whiplash.

READ MORE:  Wynne says PC plan will cost more

After winning the Progressive Conservative party leadership by in part by appealing to social conservatives, Patrick Brown has now yanked the party to the political centre faster than Paul Godfrey can close a newspaper.
People’s Guarantee in hand, Brown has taken his newly minted political platform on the road, defending plans to go into the red in the first year of a PC mandate.

22:35 Focus Ontario: Brown’s People’s Guarantee

• Focus Ontario: Brown’s People’s Guarantee
• Patrick Brown makes a bold stand in the middle of the road
• Patrick Brown commits 100,000 child care spaces, 75% child care refund
• Patrick Brown promises hydro bill reduction by additional 12%
• Patrick Brown promises cut to middle class income tax by 22.5%
• PC leader Patrick Brown lays out $5B subway plan at Toronto city hall

Previous Video

Next Video

His plan has fiscal conservatives pouting, but Brown is above all a pragmatist. His question to his unhappy right wing is simple: Do you want power or are you content with more pouting?

After four failed electoral campaigns, the PC brain trust, which includes former members of the Harper administration, has decided it’s better to be attacked as spenders than cutters.

Political platforms, after all, are not about math, but motivations. The Liberals point to “hidden cuts” but that’s unlikely to trump the Brownist message of money for mental health and daycare relief.

READ MORE:  Patrick Brown’s Oprah Moment

If your opponents paint you as mean-spirited, then open your wallet and let the warmth shine out.

In 2014, the PC arithmetic was also attacked as faulty, but the key difference this time is Brown has learned from the Liberals. Either put something in the window or shoppers will move on.

So shove over Kathleen Wynne, the activist bench has another bum on it.

Here in the centre of the universe, the world has turned upside down.