A Wee Bit O' Tory Turmoil

In the battle for the PCPO nomination in Carleton-Mississippi Mills between sitting MPP Norm Sterling and Ontario Landowners representative Jack MacLaren, Sterling appears to be winning:

He also mentioned that Sterling has sold many memberships since the nasty brawl first spilled into the public realm through yourottawaregion.com, this newspaper’s website. Sterling’s camp says it has sold some 900 memberships.

In early November, MacLaren’s camp claimed to have sold 700 memberships, though Sterling – who as the incumbent is privy to the numbers – flatly denied it, saying MacLaren sold more like 350.

Ah well. Be more fun otherwise.

Tory Turmoil Lingers Yet!

The Randy Hillier/Ontario Landlowner led coup may be spreading:

M-P-P Steve Clark is downplaying reports last week suggesting Randy Hiller was working to stage a Landowner takeover with the Leeds-Grenville and Carleton-Mississippi Mills tories.

He echoes leader Tim Hudak’s statement that the party is united against the premier.

A bit of back story here: when Clark ran for the nomination in MPP Bob Runciman's old riding, one of his competiters was OLA member Shawn Carmichael, best known for selling uninspected eggs on his chicken-farm. Apparently, there is some bad blood between these two men, as Carmichael's application to run was rejected by the provincial party executive, which led to complaints about the process:

Carmichael said the local PC executive told him he could not hand in memberships at the riding office on Friday. He said he was also not informed that voting would begin at noon Saturday and not 2 p.m. as had been stated on an earlier announcement.

Frankly, though, I'm not sure I see much to these rumours. Clark has already won the nomination, and been elected to the legislature, so I don't see how taking over his riding exec (which seems to be the gist of the rumour) would accomplish much.

In any case, there was some fun, Tory Turmoil related goings-on at Queen's Park yesterday:

Tory Norm Sterling was taunted over his accusations that colleague Randy Hillier is trying to oust him from the Ottawa-area seat the party veteran has held for more than 30 years.

"You sleeping with one eye open, Norm?" a Liberal backbencher yelled.

"Hillier for leader!" chanted Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli.

Ah! That such things might be.

Q: How Much Tory Turmoil Must The Hudak Tories Endure?

A: Even MORE!!!

Thanks to redistribution, I shared a riding with Norm Sterling for seven years and, since 2007, with Randy Hillier (Ontario PCs Struggle To Prevent Civil War On Eastern Front – Dec. 4).

It is no surprise to me that Mr. Sterling is locked in a struggle to avoid being tossed out by his riding association. Mr. Hillier runs three constituency offices, is attentive to local issues and is conscientious in following up on casework. By contrast, Mr. Sterling was so neglectful that my staff regularly dealt with complaints from constituents that they couldn't get service (or even responses) from his office.

Mr. Sterling's response to the possibility of losing the provincial PC nomination is to divert attention, by claiming that the MPP in the riding next door should be thrown out of caucus and forced to set up a rival party for – horrors! – bringing new blood into the Ontario PC Party.

Mr. Sterling should be selling more memberships, not starting public fights designed to force his leader to award him the nomination in the absence of a democratic vote.

Scott Reid, MP, Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington

Oh My!

Meanwhile, more MSM outlets twig to the Tory Turmoil story! Meanwhile, Adam Radwanski notes that, without the kind of "renewal" Randy Hillier and Co. are offering, the Hudak Tories are getting a bit long-in-the-tooth.

Tory Turmoil: Sunday Supplement!

FreeD denizen Edward Kennedy has been mentioned on this blog a number of times during the past few weeks, due to his association with the OLA (Ontario Land Owners) and Randy Hillier's riding association. Ed now claims to have resigned from both organizations as of late-November.

Also, searching my archives, I find that, besides going after Norm Sterling, the OLA vowed to target ex-MPP Laurie Scott in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock. If you remember, she was the gal that stepped aside in 2009 so John Tory could find a safe seat.

However, this article from two months ago has her winning the nomination there. As a Liberal partisan, I must insist that the OLA redouble its efforts. And if any readers want to help fund their "rural revolution", they can go here. I personally have got $5 that I'm not doing anything with.

PS. Although I see that ex-OLA chief Jack MacLaren is doing his bit to keep the PCPO civil war raging. Maybe I'll send him an Xmas card. An e-card, obviously; I'm not made out of money.

Tory Turmoil To The Max!

It's a civil war in the PCPO. Tory MPP Norm Sterling is blaming fellow Tory MPP for sicking Jack MacLaren and the Ontario Land owners on him (see here for details):

The provincial Progressive Conservative party is struggling with an insurrection of rural libertarians with a "very narrow and right-wing agenda," says west-side MPP Norm Sterling, who is blaming fellow Ottawa-area Tory Randy Hillier for a failed bid to steal his riding association out from under him.

Meanwhile, Ed Kennedy, the VP of the Frontenac Sector of Randy Hillier's riding association, says that Wednesday's meeting of the Carleton-Mississippi Mills PCPO riding association to choose its new riding executive was rigged against Jack MacLaren. He also calls Norm Sterling a "bootlicker":

This all goes to demonstrate that there are red tories in the party pulling strings, in my estimation. The left knows and fears that the landowner movement is and will effect changes for the better that embody rural rights and Conservative values but due to the success of Randy Hillier, they failed to stop his entry. They fear two honest men in the party and the more in line to come.

This was not unexpected, the same thing happened to Shawn and is more of the same old, same old. The party had been giving Jack a hard time all along since it was known he was going to run.

The loser of course is the party, choosing bootlickers of questionable character over honest men.

Oh My! And Norm, no stranger to blistering hot rhetoric himself, is suggesting that Randy Hillier

...should either fish or cut bait," Sterling said Thursday. "He should either be a member of the team or he should step outside the team and run as an Ontario Landowner under his own party label."

So far, Hillier is refusing to respond to Sterling's suggestion, dumping the problem on poor Tim Hudak. But Ed is still pushing for a party takeover:

The only individual with the capacity to drive the red tories out, is Randy Hillier. A Hillier/Maclaren combination would have been deadly for these traitors and my opinion was that this whole thing was orchestrated.

Meanwhile, Dalton McGuinty is renting a victory hall in advance of the 2011 election.

Ontario Landowners Talk Revolution

Fortunately, the first up against the wall is PCPO MPP Norm Sterling, whose seat will be contested by OLA prez Jack MacLaren, followed by Laurie Scott in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.

Sounds like they're also targetting Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, currently represented by Liberal MPP Jim Brownell.