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A spat over when to hold a byelection so new Ontario Tory leader Patrick Brown can get into the legislature is just an early skirmish between him and Premier Kathleen Wynne, but he’s used it to lure Wynne’s Liberals into hurting themselves.

With Wynne in the premier’s office and Deb Matthews her deputy, “the grandmothers are in charge,” Matthews memorably said about the government she’s in. “I like to think that grandmas are tough, but fair. Firm but kind. And always willing to listen.”

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Well, these grandmas have a mean streak.

Seconds after veteran Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop announced he’ll resign his Simcoe North seat so Brown can run there (literally seconds, while Dunlop was still talking) the Liberals sent out a statement under Matthews’s name, flinging all kinds of bull.

Brown is such a right-wing loon that Dunlop — a fair-minded, decent, Bill Davis Tory of the kind who helped make Ontario great, don’t you know — couldn’t stand to work with him any more, Matthews allowed herself to be quoted saying.