Underdog by Sue-Ann Levy

Author:Sue-Ann Levy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2016-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Not Your Typical Tory

During the heat of a policy convention in late September 2013 – after embattled leader Tim Hudak and his inner circle had fended off calls for a second leadership review or, should I say, had bullied his detractors into submission – Mr. Hudak stepped onto the main floor of the convention centre in London, Ontario, and tried to prove he was a man of the people.

He walked into the crowd, microphone in hand, lowering his voice to a level that made it seem like he was talking directly to each and every one of the eight hundred delegates assembled in the room.

He made a few self-deprecating comments in an effort to come across less stiffly than normal, and then offered to take unrehearsed and unplanned questions from the audience. It would have been a tremendous departure from the normally highly staged version of the man. Perhaps it would even have signalled he’d learned a few things from the attempt at an internal coup that had called for his head and become very public over the course of the two months prior to the September 2013 convention. I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’d heard the concerns of the party’s grassroots about his inability to connect with voters and that he was really trying to bring a fresh face to the party.

That was until a Windsor delegate got up to ask him how he’d make himself and the party more winnable in the impending election. The question itself would have been perfect (and certainly appropriate) had the delegate not stuck his foot in his mouth by prefacing it with a highly misogynistic comment about NDP leader Andrea Horwath. The man said Ms. Horwath had earned herself the nickname “The Great Orange Pumpkin” down in Windsor. The name came about not just because she’s NDP orange but also, according to him, because she’d “put on a little bit of weight.” Now, you could criticize Ms. Horwath at the time for many things – especially her decision to prop up an unelected premier mired in scandals and spending abuses. But to attack her personal appearance was disgraceful. The delegate would never, ever have dared say the same thing about a man – and it made me sad to note that as many people in the audience that day laughed as booed. Mr. Hudak had a chance to address the comment head on, thus gaining some much-needed points, by pointedly telling the delegate and the crowd it was inappropriate, but the PC leader decided to ignore it entirely and to jump full throttle into how important it was to win seats in Toronto and the GTA to gain a majority, or at the very least a minority. The lack of response was cowardly of Mr. Hudak. It would have taken nothing to register his disapproval and would have gone a long way toward diffusing what became a story. But he didn’t, and the irony

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