Caroline Mulroney is running for the leadership of Onatrio's Progressive Conservative Party, following in her father's political footsteps.
Conservatives interested in the long term viability of the Ontario PC Party may want to consider her Dad's history, the similarities are striking. For younger readers Brian Mulroney was the last Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Canada ever had.
After resigning Brian Mulroney handed the keys over to Kim Campbell and the Federal PCs were destroyed, reduced to just two seats. Caucus meetings were held in an Austin Mini. Retired Joe Clark stepped back in and did an incredible job of rebuilding the ruined party, but it wasn't enough and the PCs had little choice but to merge with the Canadian Alliance.
Brian Mulroney had never held elected office before working the backrooms to wrest the leadership away from incubmant Joe Clark. Dirty political games are nothing new, the elder Mulroney reportedly had a mole in Clark's camp, a man by the name of Pageau.
Joe Clark would have been a hard target to smear even if the #MeToo movement existed back then for explotation. But Clark's leadership was successfully underminded regardless and in a leadership review Mr. Clark received only 66% of party support. With one third of the party not backing him Clark did the honorable thing, he called for a leadership race and sought to reclaim the top job.
Sound similar?
Joe probably thought Brian would back his bid to reclaim the leadership, the elder Mulroney had endorsed him after all. In politics though the axiom of keeping your friends close and enemies closer is wise advice. Friends can easily turn into adversaries, and that's exactly what happened. Brian Mulroney courted support from Quebec nationalists like Lucien Bouchard and was able to win the leadership race.
The parallels don't end there. The federal Liberals had been in power for 16 years, and were very unpopular. Brian Mulroney seized power at the perfect time, his daughter Caroline is probably thinking that its almost a carbon copy scenario with Wynne's current Liberal government, in power for 15 years. All that was needed was to unseat the incumbant leader and the keys to the Premier's office would be there for the taking.
Did Caroline Mulroney have a Pageau type working in Patrick Brown's camp? Could be. At least three of his top advisors are now on her team, some announcing their support for the political interloper before she'd even declared her intention to run. Maybe they knew it was already in the cards.
Caroline Mulroney is now leading the charge in calling for former leader Patrick Brown to exit the race. To my way of thinking that would be nothing short of a travesty, if Brown dropped out and Mulroney remained. After the unbelievably shitty job, (sorry for the profanity but I can't think of a better description) done by her brother's media employer CTV in bringing about Patrick Brown's ouster, she should be the first to go. Going to air with such a poorly researched story reeks of what's commonly referred to as yellow journalism.
I have little doubt that Ms. Mulroney would vehemently deny any such allegations, much like Patrick Brown has denied the smears he has endured. If Mulroney were to do what I consdier the honourable thing and back out of the race, then I would join in asking for him to step aside while a thorough investigation was being conducted. If both would back out they could still run in their respective ridings...Caroline might even win her seat, Patrick is a lead pipe cinch to win his in my opinion.
That's enough for now. Click here for my next posting:
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