Friday, February 23, 2018

Is Caroline Mulroney the Hillary Clinton of Ontario politics?

Comparing Hillary Clinton with Caroline Mulroney might seem like a stretch, but it does work on a few levels. 

Hillary Clinton entered the political arena in large measure due to the name recognition that came from her husband being President of the United States for eight years.  Caroline Mulroney's recognition comes from the fact that her father was a Progressive Conservative Prime Minister for about the same length of time.

But the comparison really comes into play with Mulroney's almost daily exhortations for Patrick Brown to withdraw from the race, deeming him unfit to lead the party and become Ontario's next Premier.  Its eerily reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's campaign against Donald Trump with the former First Lady believing that the orange one was unfit to be President and calling his supporters 'deplorables'.

Obviously Patrick Brown is no Donald Trump, but the rhetoric Mulroney is using is still similar to my ears. 

Of course I doubt Trump ever marched in a Gay Pride parade, and I can't see him making the kind of inroads into the multicultural community that Patrick Brown has.  But those inclusive and politically astute qualities not withstanding, Caroline Mulroney's opinion of Patrick Brown seems pretty much in line with the former first lady's opinion of the guy in the White House.   Brown, like Trump according to Clinton... he has to go says Mulroney

Why does Patrick Brown have to leave?  Because of the stain left from accusations leveled by Caroline's brother's CTV Network.  Of course that bit of yellow journalism has been shown to be so riddled with holes that other media outfits like Global have done stories with headlines like this:  


Ms. Mulroney might do well to remember why Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.  While constantly harping on her opponent's perceived short comings, she failed to give Americans a compelling reason to vote for her, and she lost.  People need more than just reasons not to vote for someone, they also need to know what they're voting for. 

There's that old adage of there being no such thing as bad advertising and all the news of late is Patrick Patrick and more Patrick.

I do understand the challenges facing a political neophyte with not much other than her last name to recommend her.  The progressive wing of the PC party is overly represented in this race with Brown, Elliott and Mulroney all looking to court similar minded voters.  
  • Patrick Brown has a diverse organization that brought the party's membership from 12,000 to somewhere around 150,000 and maybe a bit more.
  • Christine Elliott has a long history in the party and is well respected, especially by the old guard.
  • Caroline Mulroney is Harvard educated, totalement bilangue and presents herself well.
So Caroline Mulroney urging Brown to quit does make some sense.  With him on the ballot I think its conceivable that Brian's daughter could be dropped after the first round.  I don't think she did herself any favours with the interview she just gave on Global TV.  

If you missed it the backdrop was the office building where she worked in downtown Toronto before taking a leave of absence to try politics.  The optics aren't the best.  It might impress some Bay Street Tory types, but I have a hard time seeing a large number of card carrying party members identifying with an ivory tower full of weird impressionistic art work.  If you missed it click the following link to see what I'm talking about.


It might not be Hillary Clinton addressing some Wall Street Goldman Sachs types, but I believe the effect is very much the same.  

If you didn't already know I am supporting Brown in this race, unlike certain other types I prefer to put my bias out there.  However I should also mention that I have never met the man, although he did walk past me at PC Party headquarters the night he met with the nomination committee which ultimately declared him fit to run for the leadership.  

I was drawn to the event like a political moth pulled in by an irresistible flame.  And I did want to support this fight against unbelievable odds.  The number of people there ebbed and flowed, and I put the number as being somewhere around 75, not bad considering word didn't get out until the night before. 

I would have liked to shake his hand, but the media horde was hounding him.  Especially CTV and other Bell Media outfits trying to push their bogus narrative, I don't blame him for not sticking around.

In my next blog post I'm going to try and handicap the race.  Its a hard one to predict with five diverse candidates.  I'll try not to let my positive opinion of Patrick get in the way.  Regardless of who wins I think it will take three rounds of voting which means second and third choices will be very important.  

I'll leave you with one more link.  The MSM seems to have it in for Patrick Brown, and that's okay....that's pretty much the only thing he shares in common with Donald Trump the way I see it.  At least America's billionaire President had Fox News in his corner, Patrick Brown has no sympathetic media, except for maybe Steve Paikin of TVO's The Agenda.

Please watch Patrick's interview with Steve and leave a comment with your thoughts.   






1 comment:

Gyor said...

Yeah its freaky both the MSM and the party elites of the PCs seem out to screw Patrick Brown, they want to see him destroyed which leaves me wondering why.

He not an arsehole like Trump, his not a major threat to corporate interests like NDP leaders have been seen.

So I wracking my brain for a reason why the MSM and many PC party insiders seem to want Patrick Brown gone at any cost.

The upside is it allows Patrick Brown to play the populist card without having an extreme platform, a winning combo.

If he can survive the leadership race he will likely end up Premeir of Ontario, preferably in a minority government.