A couple thoughts on Christine Elliott

Christina Blizzard basically endorses Elliott here: http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/christina_blizzard/2009/06/21/9877096-sun.html

And the Toronto Star gives a run down on how each candidate, including Elliott, would push the party to the right: http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/653871

Blizzard says of Elliott, who has tried to run in the Red Tory mold;

"From where I'm sitting, anyone who has the audacity to quietly speak about compassion in the middle of a Tory leadership campaign is getting a message across loud and clear."

Elliott's championing of herself as a "compassionate conservative" and a Red Tory is largely a result of Elliott trying to outflank the other three competitors, who are various shades of deep blue, by going after the centrist grassroots voters, and to a degree, an echo chamber effect, in which Elliott says she is moderate and compassionate, so the media reports it as is.

The Star article is interesting because it points out that despite Elliott's admittedly Red Tory rhetoric, her actual proposed policies are far outside centrism. This includes the Harrisite policies of a minimum wage freeze and a 60-hour work week, and most importantly, a flat tax, which for all the meowing over human rights in the PC leadership race, is by far the most politically toxic proposal to emerge (and tellingly, is the most visible economic policy in a race whose policy issues have largely been defined by the radical Randy Hillier).

In my experience in talking to my PC supporting friends, Elliott is not particularly popular because of her Red Tory rhetoric. Blizzard says that Liberals would fear Elliott the most, and perhaps in the long-run, she would pose the most threat, but looking in the medium-term to 2011, I believe Elliott would be rather good for the Ontario Liberals, because of the difficulty I believe she would have in getting the party election ready and behind her leadership. Quite simply, the same right-wing flank that so often made John Tory's hold on the party difficult, or influenced him into taking more right-wing positions than he was comfortable taking, would continue to cause trouble under Elliott.

Many Common Sense Revolutionaries of the Hudak camp or the rural malcontents of the Hillier camp would chaff at the prospect of being led into an election by another moderate GTA'er, and despite Elliott laying down her so called Path to Victory, I think Elliott will find it difficult to enact her plan when significant chunks of the party see her as either John Tory/Dalton McGuinty (and many Ontario PC's say they had difficulty telling them apart) in a skirt, including the nearly 200,000 PC voters who either stayed home last election or cast a protest vote for the Green Party.

Of course, as voting starts today this could all be for nothing and one of her more right wing competitors will win.