His reaction to losing two critical byelections? Issue a prepared statement accusing “union bosses” of having “bought” the NDP’s stunning victory in Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W).
When he finally faced the media Friday morning, Hudak reflexively uttered a post-election cliché: “The buck stops with me.”
Except it didn’t. Instead, he kept blaming those big bad union “bosses” for buying off voters.
(Note to editors and readers: the Star’s stylebook frowns on calling labour leaders “bosses” — since they are, after all, elected — hence the quotation marks when citing Hudak’s unflattering references.)
It’s one thing to be anti-union. It’s quite another to be anti-democratic by suggesting voters sold out to those seemingly naughty, nasty unionized teachers who volunteered to knock on doors for the triumphant NDP in K-W.
Hudak famously demonized “foreign workers” in the last election by attacking job training for new citizens. Now, he is berating big labour as the bogeyman.
Must he spit out the term “union bosses” a half-dozen times in every speech or news conference? Hudak never calls (unelected) corporate executives “bosses;” they are always described as dignified CEOs.
Nor does Hudak like being called a “party boss” himself. Staff are instructed to address him as “the leader” — duly elected by Tory delegates.
Getting himself elected by voters, however, is proving rather more difficult. Hudak squandered a big lead in the last general election before losing last week’s byelections, and he still ranks well below Premier Dalton McGuinty and the NDP’s Andrea Horwath in approval ratings.
His response? Instead of soul-searching, scapegoating.
Will it work? Horwath is puzzled by her rival’s political strategy:
“I think it plays into the politics of division, it plays into the politics of fear, and I think people are ready for something different,” the NDP leader told me after watching Hudak’s performance Friday.
Far be it from me to second-guess the savvy strategists in Hudak’s office, who often tell me they are hunkered down “gaming.” Not video games, merely political games — plotting strategy for various scenarios.
Scapegoating is part of gaming. So is policy-making on occasion, as we shall see Monday when the Tory leader is set to unveil a new health care discussion paper — in a transparent bid to change the channel after last week’s bad news.
It’s also an attempt to reboot the leader’s image — call it Tim 2.0 — by recasting him as a premier-in-waiting. The rap against Hudak in the last campaign was that he seemed relentlessly anti-HST, anti-foreigner, anti-wind, anti-everything. Now he must ante up policies of his own to show Tories are more than naysayers.
His last discussion paper, on “labour flexibility,” suggested allowing workers to opt out of union membership and dues — conveniently cutting labour’s cash flow. An earlier paper proposed selling off parts of provincially-owned Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One.
There is much to be gained from offering meaty (even red meat) ideas: they rouse the media, rally the party base and reinvigorate Tory donors. But there’s a difference between critiquing unions and bashing them, between calling them out and name-calling.
As Hudak rolls out Tim 2.0, he must win new converts — not just castigate old enemies. Setting his sights on the next election, the Tory boss (sorry, leader) is looking over his shoulder at his own caucus, wondering if they will follow him up the hill or tackle him from behind.
Tories are still feeling the pain of losing K-W to the NDP (who benefited, it’s true, from a strong local candidate — though that same candidate finished third in 2007, so Hudak can’t duck his negative influence). But the party is unlikely to unplug Tim 2.0 in the middle of a minority government.
The bigger question is whether Hudak can raise the Tories’ political game, upgrading from conventional gaming and scapegoating to serious policy-making and politicking. Only then can he put the byelection rout behind him, in time for the next general election.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Martin Regg Cohn
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