How Tory can win the Ontario election

Change tune on the faith-based schools issue .

Tory has accomplished two significant things with his plan for funding faith-based schools, one obviously being to anger more than a handful of voters.

But just as importantly, he has single-handedly set the agenda for the entire campaign. Last week’s debate, daily news coverage, negative attacks; all have been centred on this (up until Tory raised it, virtually non-existent) topic. Hampton and McGuinty, for all their attacks on the idea, haven’t had much else to talk about. For this reason, he shouldn’t drop it entirely, but he should definitely change tact.

Here’s how I think he can make it work.

Instead of steadfastly sticking to his original proposal – a typical tactic of politicians who think voters see them as perfect policy robots and not human beings – he should commit to coming up with a better solution in his first term as Premier. Now that the issue is out in the open, too many Ontarians have a strong opinion on the topic for it to go away. Tory can still hold claim ownership of the issue, and get voted in as Premier, by committing to do all the necessary research, economic modeling and stakeholder outreach to come up with what will a better plan.

Doing so wouldn’t be backpeddalling, nor would it be “pandering to the polls,” but would instead be a smart person refining (but still sticking to) a smart idea based on new evidence and lessons learned. There’s simply little chance he can get elected with the plan as it is now. Investing a few years will almost certainly result in a much better solution that addresses concerns of both faith and equality supporters. What’s more, if properly crafted and indeed the best solution, the new plan would serve as the defining issue of the next provincial election, one that Tory would be well poised to win.

Will he do it?

I suspect pressure is pretty high on him to stick to his guns (for aforementioned robotic reasons), and I’m not entirely certain that he reads my blog on a regular basis. If he’s going to do it though, time is of the essence. If he changes tact now, it’s a shrewd move that shows he can learn from voter sentiment but still lead on an issue. If he waits, it’s a last minute attempt to win back voters he’s lost.

ontario election