10.24.2016 07:05 AM

The PC winner: a very young man who wants to keep alive very old fights

Voters care most about (a) the leader (b) some of a party’s policies, and (sometimes) (c) whether a party or a politician has been there too long. That’s about it. So, can a series of bad nominations – this one comes to mind – torpedo an election campaign, and a political party?

Sure. Of course. And now, in a former leader’s riding, the PCs have a very young man who wants to keep fighting old fights.

This may not end well.

14 Comments

  1. Sean says:

    Your headline nailed it. Totally agree.

    • Aongasha says:

      Funny, I thought we wanted to encourage young people to get more involved in politics. Guess it depends if it suits your ideology or not. Oh well, democracy in action!

      • bluegreenblogger says:

        ROFL, sure, young people in politics, but really, 19 year old in Parliament? Because he has 100 family members to vote for him in a candidates contest?

      • Derek Pearce says:

        It’s the “very old fights” part that’s important here, the very young man part is less consequential. As a Liberal I’m perfectly happy to see Conservatives both federally and provincially in Ontario (and provincially as an overall adjective) pick at socon issues– it drives voters away from them. Keep it up.

  2. BlueGritr says:

    This development is more than anything the Wynne Liberals could ever ask for. Four more years.

  3. Ron says:

    Great. Just what we need. Another [DELETED] to try and mix oil and water.

    He is a perfect fit for Brown though. Maybe Gretzky will give him an autographed jersey.

  4. Matt says:

    A) Sounds like it was a ranked ballot type electoral process

    B) Given the ranked ballot, one of the candidates, Tony Quirk’s attempt to block Dykstra from winning backfired huge when he and Oosterhoff entered into an agreement that would have Oosterhoff’s supporters pick Quirk second and Quirk’s supporters pick Oosterhoff second. It appears Quirk’s supporters did for Oosterhoff, but Oosterhoff’s didn’t for Quirk.

    • Matt says:

      Meant it backfired because Quirk thought he had a legit shot at winning and underestimated the support Oosterhoff had and overestimated his own support. Obviously it worked in keeping Dykstra out of the #1 spot.

  5. Richard says:

    ““He is here, but he doesn’t work on a Sunday as he believes it is a day of rest,” said a man who answered Oosterhoff’s phone Sunday morning. He did not identify himself and hung up when a request to interview Oosterhoff was repeated.”

    His dad. It was his dad. LOL

    • Ron says:

      I guess we can assume that when young Mr. O. reaches a position of responsibility, we better hope that emergencies, disasters
      and crises take the sabbath off too. Otherwise there won’t be anyone behind the wheel.

  6. monkey says:

    I am an Ontario PC supporter and my response was the WTF. You would think they would have learned after the NDP surge in Quebec or NDP win in Alberta where many teenagers who clearly weren’t qualified accidentally won. At least in those cases they were all in ridings they weren’t expected to win, not normally safe ridings like this one. He probably will still win due to the history of riding and unpopularity of the provincial Liberal government, but had the chosen any of the other two, there wouldn’t even be any question whereas a candidate like him puts what should be a normally safe riding into danger. I am all for bringing younger voters in but like any job you work your way up the ladder. How about assisting on running a campaign first and running for head of the PC Youth, that would be more logical and maybe running for MPP in another decade. Or at least if he must run, do so in a general election in a no hope riding like where I live in downtown Toronto or your area WK as both areas the PCs stand zero chance of winning and at least they can learn the ropes of running a campaign without actually winning.

  7. Tim Sullivan says:

    You may have seen this, Warren.

    http://ottawacitizen.com/storyline/reevely-tories-decry-gun-violence-in-vanier-that-doesnt-exist

    This isn’t even the best quote, left for the summary:

    “They were flanked by placards the party had made up, plotting each of the 57 incidents this year (some in which people have been hit, some not) on a map of Ottawa. None of them has been in Vanier.

    “I’ll say that again. Complaining about Liberal neglect leading to gun violence in Vanier this year, the politicians put up maps showing no gun violence in Vanier this year.”

    All I can say is, I want the television back, Andre.

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