Clear choices for Ontario

At least there is a clear choice -- no more two Liberal parties. I thought Elliott would win based on being very election friendly but, despite his policies, Hudak is a good campaigner. Still, I think the PC's just gave us at least one more term of Liberal government in Ontario.


Hudak is new Tory leader

Election is seen as move back toward Harris era, away from Tory's centrism

Robert Benzie, Rob Ferguson, Tanya Talaga Queen's Park Bureau

Progressive Conservatives today elected Niagara-area MPP Tim Hudak as their new leader, charting a new right-wing course for a party that has struggled while moored in the political centre for the past seven years.

In a third-ballot victory at the PC convention in Markham, Hudak, 41, bested MPP Frank Klees, 58, (Newmarket-Aurora), winning 5,606 of 10,250 electoral votes cast in 107 ridings in the preferential-ballot contest.

The married father of a toddler won by securing the second-choice votes of also-ran MPPs Christine Elliott, 54, (Whitby-Oshawa) and Randy Hillier, 51, (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington).

He will lead the Tories to battle against Premier Dalton McGuinty Liberals in the 2011 election.
Heir apparent to former premier Mike Harris, who governed Ontario from 1995 until 2002, Hudak plans to steer the party back to the right following politically unsuccessful forays to the centre by former premier Ernie Eves, leader from 2002 to 2004, and John Tory, who led from 2004 until his surprise defeat in a March 5 by-election in Haliburton.