The two candidates for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives insist they're dramatically different, but Patrick Brown and Christine Elliott agree it's time the party fixed its broken relationships.
Before a half-filled theatre, the two participated in a debate Saturday morning at Lakeshore Cinemas in Tecumseh. Veronique Mandal, program coordinator of the journalism program at St.Clair College's Mediaplex, moderated the debate that touched issues including tackling the high cost of hydro, the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and privatizing the LCBO.
However, the comments that drew the most applause from the audience were admissions that the party hierarchy ignored its grassroots in the past and needed to listen to its members more.
"I know the party didn't put any effort into Windsor before," says Brown. "We wrote it off. Never again."
Elliott says building consensus with the party's traditional opponents, doesn't mean abandoning conservative principals. "Some people wonder if you can be socially compassionate and still be a progressive conservative. How did that ever happen to our party?"
"Last election we basically declared war on all unions. It was no surprise that when you poke them in the eye with a sharp stick, they fight back ferociously," says Elliott.
"There's no monopoly on a good idea," agrees Brown.
The winner of the leadership vote will be announced May 9.
