Friday, September 28, 2007

Who is “John Tory” Hiding?

Recently, I went to an all candidate’s debate in the Golden Horseshoe. The PC Candidate, who I will not name (because all you need to know is that the individual is YOUR John Tory Candidate), was distributing campaign materials: 4 to be precise. None of these pieces of literature gave me any information on the PC Candidate, who would be representing the people, if elected. The PC information was roughly divided up this way: 50% focusing how evil an influence Dalton McGuinty has been in Ontario, 25% introducing to me to John Tory, and the remainder 25% about a vague PC "plan" for Ontario. I imagine that this PC info and materials was the template-norm for all PC candidates that were distributed in Ontario.

The bottom line seems to be that the people, who vote for a representative, don't need to know who their representative is, only that they are a JOHN TORY candidate. Supposedly that representative will only be representing John Tory and his views, not their own or their constituents. But we all know that everyone has their own motivations, ambitions and ideas. More importantly, this is potentially the person who you'll be dealing with when it comes to issues, not John Tory. Additionally, I’ve noticed the party is not promoting the fact that it is a PC/Progressive Conservative party, but again, rather a “John Tory” party, as “John Tory” is more prominently and frequently displayed on PC materials than is “PC” or “Progressive Conservative” actually is. I can be led to assume that the party is almost ashamed of its own party and candidates. I can only wonder and imagine why…...

The fact that all the PC candidates are hiding behind John Tory is scary. It's scary because just who in fact are his candidates? We have a right to know. Why aren't we being told their story and their motivations and life history? Why aren’t these candidates themselves even telling us their own story? Because obviously more than one of the PC candidates has something to hide from Ontarians that would keep us from voting for them if we really knew who they were and their beliefs. Now granted a PC candidate's bio can be found on the PC website, but to actually find that takes interest and work on a voter's behalf.
The only information about this PC candidate that I got from attending this debate was from one of his own campaign workers: he was formally in the religious life, but is no longer as he now manages a multi-million dollar company. Ok: one priority of his is big business, got it, and what a surprise from a PC candidate.

The PC Candidate at the event I attended also had the opportunity to meet me, but he didn’t take the initiative. I say it like this because really, a candidate wants to meet as many people as possible to make a good impression, and if you don’t take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, then you deserve not to get that vote. Granted, I was wearing a Dalton.ca t-shirt, but it would have been very nice for him to introduce himself to me when I was standing right in front of him in a non-busy situation. Let’s relate this to a very practical similar scenario: when canvassing, another party’s sign on one’s lawn is not a deterrent to any candidate of another party to still approach that house and inquire if they are really sold on their vote and if that sign truly does represent their views. Furthermore, any candidate is running because, we assume, that they want to win. If they do win, they will represent everyone, not just PCers. That's the reasoning behind the fact that no constituency office is allowed to have any party materials/logo in that office. I did expect an introduction, and I was let down by this "John Tory" candidate. He clearly doesn't want to represent me.


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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love when my local John Tory candidate comes to my door. I simply tell him that I'm not looking for John Tory's voice in my riding. I want a bull dog, not a lap dog, to fight for me at QP.