Folks, we give you Doug Ford. Remember him?

Please don’t stop reading. We can explain the inexplicable — starting with his declaration Monday to seek the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives and become Ontario’s next premier.

The June 7 election was supposed to be a chance for voters to pass judgment on Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government.

A referendum, remember? Focused on Liberal failures.

The Tories assumed they’d win on the strength of Wynne’s weaknesses. No matter who was leading their party.

Now, the opposition PCs have had the tables turned on them — by themselves. The next election looks like a referendum on the opposition Tories as they turn themselves inside out with a bitterly contested leadership race.

And a hard-fought battle to chop up a key plank of the party platform: Yes, “Axe the (carbon) tax.”

Until last week, it mattered little who led the party, but all that changed when Patrick Brown was publicly disgraced in an alleged sex scandal. Suddenly leaderless, the PC caucus quickly rallied around their most popular and qualified MPP, urging the party to confirm their choice to lead them into the next election.

Vic Fedeli. Remember him?

That was Friday lunchtime. By suppertime, in a bizarre power play, PC party president Rick Dykstra and his executive basically told caucus — you know, the elected MPPs who face voters every four years — to go fornicate themselves.

That left Fedeli serving as the unchallenged PC leader for a day, until his own party executive downgraded him to interim chief of a disrespected caucus. With the start of the election barely 100 days away, Dykstra opened the door to Ford and all other pretenders to the throne to party on at the party’s expense.

By Sunday, Dykstra — an ex-MP who got the job after Brown intervened on behalf of his old pal — was himself decapitated, felled by the sexual impropriety virus that has become contagious, incubating for years before emerging with virulence. Over four days the party changed leaders, shortchanged its new leader, and then lost its president.

The executive wanted a wide open leadership race, and it got one — an epic war of egregious egos.

Behold a hostile takeover by Ford Nation, a coronation of Caroline Mulroney (daughter of a former PM), a revival of the social conservative faction (MPP Monte McNaughton), or any other unknowns (for example Rod Phillips, a corporate type playing to type). Unless Tories opt for the restoration of sanity and stability under Fedeli, the comeback kid.

The question isn’t whether Ford is up to the job of leader — anyone can apply, provided they survive the vetting process that will surely be put in place after the Brown fiasco. The real question is whether the 200,000 PC members across the province will fall for the anti-elitist, anti-gravy-train sloganeering made famous by the Ford brothers when one of them was mayor.

Ford will score big points by attacking the proposed carbon tax that is a centrepiece of the PC platform, brought in over heavy opposition from the rank and file. “Axe the tax” will be his battle cry, forcing all the other candidates to respond.

Will the grassroots fall under the spell of Mulroney, about whom we know everything and nothing — except that she has lived and worked so much of her adult life in the U.S. (Hello Michael Ignatieff), and has been studiously avoiding major media outlets? To date, her political persona exists primarily as a Twitter bot periodically tweeting out an “Official Statement” — official in what capacity remains unclear — condemning sexual transgressions or demanding an open leadership race. Calls by media colleagues go unanswered — no questions, please.

There is a thin line between celebrity and notoriety for a Mulroney — it’s hard to know whether her family name will work wonders in a province where Brian ended up unloved as PM. It worked well enough for Justin Trudeau, but his late father was rather more popular in Ontario, and he wisely waited several years to grow into the job of MP before running for leader — and then seasoning himself well ahead of an election campaign.

There is also Rod Phillips, a former Postmedia and CivicAction chair little known beyond the boardrooms of Toronto and, like Mulroney, his boundless ambition untested in political combat. Or McNaughton, the MPP who may once again give voice to the social conservative crowd that backed Brown when he opposed any update of Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum (after all, why educate teenagers about the right of consent to better equip them against the kinds of allegations we’ve been hearing about?).

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Perhaps all of these contenders and pretenders will find a way to finesse their embrace of the party platform while Ford dismantles it plank by plank — starting with the deeply unpopular PC carbon tax. Doubtless, all are confident they can take on Ford, just like all those Republicans — not least Jeb Bush, heir to another great political dynasty — boasted they’d put Donald Trump in his place in the primaries. Remember him?

Let the horse race begin. Let the PC platform and chariots be rebuilt.

Get ready for the next election campaign, 100 days away. Just don’t expect a referendum on the Liberals alone.

Martin Regg Cohn's political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca, Twitter: @reggcohn

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