Ontario PC leadership race looking like a Maple Leafs rebuild

Ontario's Conservative Party is like the Toronto Maple Leafs of provincial politics: trying to rebuildyetagain.

Butwith only a few weeks left in a leadership contest that few peopleoutside the party have paid any attention to, the question is: whowill lead the party, andin which direction?

Like the Leafs, the Tories have tried atruculent period, with right-wingleaders such as Frank Miller, Mike Harris andTim Hudak, who steppeddown after not one but two unsuccessful tries at body checkingtheLiberals from the premier's office.

Andthey've tried playing their left-wingers for voters by electing LarryGrossmanand more recently John Tory (now the mayor of Toronto)as party leaders.

Like their hockey equivalent, the Tories have had years of successand years in the politicalwilderness.

Ontario Tories have not tasted election night victory since Harris in 1999when the one-time golf pro won his second majority governmentbefore stepping down in 2003,paving the way for Ernie Eves, whocould play both left and right wing.

The field is down to 2 candidates

Now the Conservatives are at another crossroads with just two choices: Barrie MP Patrick Brown and MPP Christine Elliott.

And the compare-and-contrast couldn't be clearer for Tories who willcast their ballots on May 3 and May7with the winner announced twodays later in Toronto.

Elliott is the ProgressiveConservative veteran. At 60 years old, she has been a MPP since 2006, ran for the leadership in 2009 and is the widow of former federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. If elected,she will become the first woman to lead the party.

But she is also someone Brown and his followers have labelled as partof the old guardof the PC party, the establishment candidate.

Brown,the social Conservative, is 36. He issingle and a lawyer byprofession. He was first elected a Barriecity councillorat age 22 and by2006was an elected federal MP. But he's always been on thebackbench never appointed a parliamentary secretary andneverconsidered, reportedly, for elevation to cabinet.

But, he's tapped into something in this provincial leadership race thathas clearly made him a contender and no longer a laughing stock,challenging Elliott who for a long time seemed to have a lock on beingleader.

Lacking the dollars and delegates to continue, last weekMPP Monte McNaughton pulled out of the race and threwhis support behind Brown.Elliott saw her opening to lambaste both men, though the message wasdirected squarely at Brown.

In a news releaseElliott was quoted as saying of Brown that he's an "untested candidate with nothing more to offer than a life lived as a career politician. Worse yet, over the course of histime spentin office he has done little of significance and, has no substantiverecord."

The release didn't stop there, with references to "Monte's andPatrick's ideological rejection of a modern and inclusive Ontario."

Views, Elliott argues, that will see the party defeated againin the next provincial election.

But Brown is playing demographics. He's trying to tap into the growing South Asian communities around Toronto for votes, and in some areas he'ssucceeding. If that holds up and Brown wins the leadership, it's the kind of support that might allow the Tories to start winning seats again in thevote-rich Greater Toronto Area.

Even those who see Brown as the answer to the party's woes admit their sense is that delegates are still torn between going with theknown in Elliott or the promise of the unknown in Brown.

The Liberals and the NDP have been keeping quiet about the PC race. But, make no mistake, they're keeping a close eye on what's going on.

And both are privately anxious to see Brown win because they, likeElliott, believe he's out of touch with a modern Ontario. The opposition hopes Brown will follow ina long line of PC leaders who, like the Leafs, promised to rebuild forsuccessonly to fail one more time.