Article content continued

Fact check: true.

Alas, Doug Ford is much better at making messes than cleaning them up.

Against all odds, every scenario just keeps getting worse for the PCs. The Stick with Vic group now has even more incentive to shut down the leadership contest, or to stack it somehow in favour of centrists and known quantities, with all the negatives that would entail. Many members would be absolutely furious at a time when their support is needed most. And because Fedeli would face a leadership contest within 18 months of the election, even were he to win the Premier’s Office, the opposition could at least semi-credibly argue Ontarians won’t know who they’re voting for.

If they do go ahead with a proper campaign, Ford will almost certainly relitigate massive disagreements within the party that Brown had barely managed to tamp down: over the carbon tax, and over social conservative issues like sex-ed, which is still a raw nerve among some conservatives — not least in ethnic communities that were crucial to Brown’s win and could also be for Ford’s.

At first blush, Ford doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense as a magnet for so-con votes. But Charles McVety, head of Canada Christian College and a longtime leader on the Christian Right, is already foursquare behind him. “He’s not perfect in any way, he’s not perfect on my issues,” he concedes. “Smoking and drinking and who knows what else — I don’t even want to ask.”