Just seven months after winning a majority government, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have formed an “election readiness committee” for the 2022 vote.

The nine-member team includes major players from last spring’s campaign and new party president Brian Patterson, along with Ford’s chief of staff Dean French. There is one woman in the group.

Ford said in a statement Wednesday that the committee “will offer invaluable leadership and advice to ensure the Ontario PC Party is prepared for victory in 2022.”

The announcement comes as the Liberals, reduced to seven MPPs in the June 7 vote and without official party status in the legislature, scramble to raise money and are debating when to hold a leadership convention to replace former leader Kathleen Wynne.

New Democrats, now the official opposition, will hold a mandatory review of Andrea Horwath’s leadership this spring.

The rival parties charged the announcement suggests Ford is more interested in campaigning than governing.

“Here’s a guy who’s totally focused on himself and getting, and holding on, to power. A lot of people are saying we’ve got big problems in Ontario and why aren’t we focusing on that?” said New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth).

A prime example of that is the looming closure of the General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa, interim Liberal leader John Fraser told the Star.

“That’s the type of thing he should be focused on.”

Ford’s committee will be lead by veteran Conservative strategist and lobbyist Chris Froggatt of Loyalist Public Affairs, who was a vice-chairman of the spring effort and travelled on the leader’s bus with French, 2018 election campaign manager Kory Teneycke of Rubicon Strategy, along with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, PC Party executive director Mike Crase, PC Ontario Fund chairman Tony Miele, along with Ford deputy chiefs of staff Amin Massoudi and Simone Daniels.

Conspicuously absent is former Ford principal secretary Jenni Byrne, who recently left the premier’s office for an appointment to the Ontario Energy Board.

Tabuns said it is “weird” to have just one woman on the committee.

“It’s a pretty consistent pattern. My sense is it’s a pretty male-dominated team over there. Just the boys club, no girls allowed.”

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