During the Progressive Conservative leadership race, Doug Ford vilified former leader Patrick Brown for appointing candidates for the upcoming election, accusing Brown of elitism and taking power away from grassroots riding associations.
That’s why so many people were surprised when Ford appointed 11 candidates to carry the PC banner in June.
Ford’s flimsy excuse was that Brown had screwed everything up and there was no time to have nomination meetings in those ridings.
But some of the disgruntled voices came from Conservatives in those ridings who said that candidates had been selling memberships for months and they were ready to go until Ford pulled the rug out from under them.
In fact, there was a nomination meeting Tuesday night in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, which begs the question, why couldn’t those 11 other ridings be allowed the same process?
Some Conservative disciples will accept Ford’s explanation, simply because they blindly accept anything Ford says, but the reality is, this has all the markings of yet another politician saying one thing to get elected and then backtracking once they get the job.
It may not matter to loyal Conservative supporters, but that large block of undecided voters, trying to figure out where to park their vote, have every right to ask, if he flip-flops on this issue, what else will he flip-flop on?
Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News