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Premier Doug Ford’s disappointing first six months in power are causing even true blue Conservatives to question the way they choose a leader.

Their one-member-one-vote system of voting for leaders was revolutionary when they brought it in after the 1987 Liberal sweep. After 42 years of Tory rule — basically a benevolent dictatorship — the Tory party that at one time considered premiership of the province a birthright lost its nerve.

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They knew they had to open up the party to newcomers and new ideas. Still smarting from divisive rivalries that had seared themselves into the Tory fabric during two previous leadership campaigns, the party looked for a new way to do things.

Young, savvy strategists like Deb Hutton, Tom Long, Leslie Noble and Alister Campbell realized the party would not survive another leadership bloodbath. They had to drag the party — kicking and screaming, if need be — away from the smoky back rooms of Rosedale and Bay Street, democratize it and into the 21st century. Heck, even the 20th century would have been a step forward.