Is there a Conservative Party candidate on the ballot in LFL&A?

Jeff Green | May 08, 2014

The short answer is yes. Randy Hillier is a Conservative MPP, a former leadership candidate for the party and until the dissolution of the legislature last week he was member of the Conservative Party Caucus.

But at the very least, Hillier is about as likely to become a cabinet minister if Tim Hudak became the premier as Kathleen Wynne is. There is no indication that the two men have spoken since Hudak said Hillier was “not a team player” in September of last year, when he stripped Hillier of his position as Labour critic in his shadow cabinet at Queen’s Park.

The demotion took place after an email Hillier had sent to the party questioning its ties to a construction company was leaked to the press. Earlier in the summer Hillier had supported a proposal to make it easier for party members to call for a leadership review, which did not endear himself to Mr. Hudak either.

There is no indication that Randy Hillier has reconciled either with Hudak himself or with any other members of the party's inner circle since September.

None of this is likely to hurt Randy Hillier’s chances of re-election in Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington on June 12, as the spat has not gone so far as to lead either to Hillier leaving the party or the party brass removing him as their candidate, so he is still carrying the Tory banner.

Although he has repeatedly said that he is more beholden to his constituents than he is to his party - and his difficulties with the party do bear this out to some extent even though most of us don’t really care about the backroom politics in Toronto - he has not taken the ultimate step and decided to run as an independent, constituency-first candidate. If that had happened, we would have been in for an extremely interesting election, rather than one with long odds in favour of the incumbent.

The controversy will, however, add a wrinkle to the local campaign, which will feature the same candidates for the three largest parties as the last time around in the fall of 2011 – Bill MacDonald for the Liberals and Dave Parkhill for the NDP. Among the major parties, only the Green Party will have a new candidate, Cam Mather from Tamworth.

Randy Hillier will run against the Liberal record after 11 years in power, which Bill MacDonald will be forced to defend, but Hillier will be open to the attack that even if his party comes to power he will remain as ever as an oppositional figure, only talking about what is wrong with the system but never able to put anything new in place.

It may not be enough to dent his standing; he received over 50% of the votes last time, but it will give his opponents some ammunition this time around, if only because many people vote for the party and not the candidate.