Hillier comes out of his shell

Jeff Green | Jun 26, 2014

Anyone who thought Randy Hillier would remain quiet about the fate of his party, and the province, after the recent election saw him returned as an opposition Conservative MPP, would have been mistaken.

He stayed loyal to the party message during the campaign, but now that is over, he has become more vocal in his critique of the leader and the party.

It all seems to have been kicked off by an Op-Ed piece in the Toronto Star by Geoff Owen of H&K Strategies, a volunteer who rode the bus and planes with Tory leader Tim Hudak during the election campaign. The article, titled “Why I’m proud of Tim Hudak” includes the claim that after losing the election  “fingers are pointed and accusations are made largely by people who were solidly behind Tim and his plan until the votes were counted”.

Describing this comment as “pathetic attempt at spin” on his Facebook page, Hillier went on to say that “not one PC candidate was informed of the 100,000 job cuts until it was announced. How could we be behind something that was purposely kept from us?”

He has since given newspaper and radio interviews in which he said that most of the Tory caucus wanted Hudak to leave immediately after a caucus meeting that was held four days after the election, but Hudak did not do so, although he has subsequently succumbed to the pressure and will be leaving when house comes back into session in July.

In a telephone interview this week, Randy Hillier told the Frontenac News, “I spent most of the campaign convincing people that Tim Hudak's name was not on the ballot here; that they were electing a local representative who is going to advocate for their concerns.”

This, even though as he said during the campaign and he repeated this week, Hillier is supportive of most of the thrust of the Conservative campaign, which fits with his own positions on many issues. The promise of 100,000 job cuts was hard for him to explain, however.

“The general thrust I absolutely agree with. Do we need to reduce our overhead? Yes, but we should not do it in a vindictive manner but rather in a thoughtful and reasonable way that is not detrimental to families and people in the province,” he said.

Now that Mr. Hudak will be resigning, rather than focussing on leadership, Hillier says the party needs to look at the way it operates rather than simply selecting a new leader. He has written a letter to the president of the party, Richard Ciano and all the riding presidents, asking that they consider making changes in the name of democratizing the way policy decisions are made and allowing for a greater role for local MPPs.

In the letter he says that since 2003 when they lost power to the Liberals the party has moved to the left and to the right without success, suggesting that something more fundamental must be attempted.

“There are other challenges we face as we rebuild, and one of those will include defining who we are as a party. I believe our brand should be simple and clear, that we as a party are willing to put public interests above all else. The discussion of centre, right or left is becoming moot to the majority of the public. There is an unsated appetite for responsible and accountable elected officials who will act upon the public’s best interests on the matters that affect them most, and care little about where a policy may sit on the political spectrum, or which party it originated from.”

Among the proposals he made are: to have powerful positions in the legislature, such as house leader, caucus chair, whip, deputy whip, deputy speaker and committee chairs chosen through a caucus election instead of being appointed by the leader; fiscal transparency concerning finances and the use of fundraising dollars; a one-member one-vote system for selecting the party leader; and creating an open forum for party members to express ideas without fear of reprisal from the party establishment. In all, he made ten proposals in his letter.

He concludes the letter with the following: “By establishing these and similar tools to recover the correct and rightful position of the individuals and elected members in our representative democracy, when we begin to welcome all individuals into our political home - we will be rewarded with more people naturally finding the PC Party a comfortable place to call home."

Randy Hillier is not expected to seek the leadership of the party when a leadership contest takes place.