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Bill Kelly: Just what do the Ontario PCs stand for?

Ontario Conservative party leadership candidates Tanya Granic Allen, left to right, Christine Elliott, Doug Ford and Caroline Mulroney pose for a photo in TVO studios in Toronto on Thursday, February 15, 2018 following a televised debate. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Watching the final televised debate in the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership campaign Thursday evening, I certainly got a clear picture of what the candidates are opposed to, but we heard very little of what they stand for.

They spent a lot of time  slamming  former leader Patrick Brown, which was curious at best, since Brown is out of the race, and hardly a threat to the leadership ambitions of any of the candidates.

Disgruntled voters, who tuned in, looking for a new vision for Ontario, heard only rhetoric and very little substance.

As you might expect, there was a lot of Kathleen Wynne bashing, and that played well with the partisan in-studio audience.

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We heard how they would tear down wind turbines, tear up hydro contracts,  rip up the sex-ed curriculum, lower hydro rates, reduce wait times for medical care and, of course, lower taxes.

All of those promises are feel-good crowd-pleasers, but what was lacking was the answer to one very significant question: how are you going to pay for it?

There’s a variation of an old Japanese proverb that states, vision without funding, is just a hallucination, and action without vision is a nightmare.

Ontario voters need substance, not hallucination because we certainly don’t need any more political nightmares.

Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News

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