In the halls of Queen’s Park, it’s possible to overhear conversations that sound more like directions to Tim Hortons than the usual political gossip.
Go too far right, hang a sharp left and then sit down right in the centre.
Politicos love nothing more than plotting politics on a straight line. Where each party or even each politician lines up from left to right is the political equivalent of a baseball card.
Tim Hudak is a stay-at-home deep right fielder who runs into trouble when chasing a fly ball to centre.
The idea of left and right in politics comes from the French Revolution when revolutionary leaders sat to the left of the president and royalist supporters to the right. Then as now nothing remains static in politics. Within a few years the leftist deputies found themselves on the political right as increasingly radical deputies changed the political landscape. Those who started on the right had more to worry about – namely the guillotine.
With the swearing in of Kathleen Wynne and her twin priorities of social justice and fiscal responsibility the balance of left to right has changed significantly. Wynne has her eye on Andrea Horwath’s lawn with the intention of mowing her grass. Proposals to tie business tax credits to job creation? Sounds like an interesting idea, says Wynne. Expect more movement on NDP proposals as budget time approaches.
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The Liberal shift towards the NDP has opened up some room on the right, but Hudak may have trouble capitalizing on it. Stung by voter rejection in 2011, Hudak has decided to outline in detail his plans in a series of papers called “Paths to Prosperity.” The danger is proposals to defang unions, eliminate non-teaching positions and delay full-day kindergarten may put Hudak beyond the appetite of centre-right voters.
“If we offer a light-blue plan, people will choose the Liberal plan every time,”says PC chief of staff Ian Robertson, who believes the coming election battle will be about plans not personalities. The logic is voters want a real choice and if giving up the room on the right is the cost, then so be it.
Hudak is staking his political future on voters in the Rob Ford Ring, the ridings around the Toronto centre core, deciding tough medicine is what is needed and the PCs are the ones to administer it.
Just like French deputies in 1789, a miscalculation will mean the political equivalent of a one-way ride in a tumbrel for Hudak.
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