Embattled Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is pleading with malcontents in his own party to put away the knives.

Returning from a one-week summer vacation Monday to quell the rebellion fomenting in his absence, Hudak said he opposes another leadership review and warned party infighting only helps the governing Liberals.

“The answer is no . . . we went through that just last year,” he said, referring to his February 2012 endorsement by 78.7 per cent of Tory members.

“We’ve got two choices as a party. We can choose to fight among ourselves and fall further behind and let the Liberals call an election and win government again — and that would set us even further back as a province,” said Hudak.

“Or we can join together. We can fight side by side and we can bring forward that platform that says Ontario will actually lead again when it comes to jobs.”

In the wake of the Aug. 1 byelections — which saw the Tories win one seat while the Liberals and New Democrats each bagged two — there are growing calls for a leadership review vote at the PC policy convention in London on Sept. 21-22.

MPPs Frank Klees (Newmarket-Aurora) and Randy Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Lenox and Addington), runners-up to Hudak in the 2009 leadership contest, think it’s a way to clear the air.

Both Klees and Hillier argue that allowing the motion to be debated next month would be cathartic for the party’s grassroots.

“The more you allow things to fester, the worse it gets,” Klees noted last week.

“To suppress peoples’ opinions only amplifies them,” agreed Hillier on Thursday.

However, such a vote is specifically prohibited by the party constitution, which some Tories want amended so a second review could be held.

Article 24 of the PC charter says reviews can “only” be held after general elections the Tories don’t win.

“We can circle and shoot among ourselves or we could actually get together as a team,” said Hudak, facing questions about this latest internal turmoil for the first time.

His loyalists are fighting back with a slick new website, lettimlead.ca, designed to build support for the leader.

While unofficial, the self-proclaimed “grassroots effort” was created by Mark Hardwick and Brett Bell, who worked on the party’s social media team during the 2011 election campaign.

Hudak conceded Monday he wished his party had won more of the five former Liberal seats up for grabs two weeks ago.

“We should neither be thrilled by the byelection results, nor should we be despondent,” he said, flanked by incoming Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Doug Holyday.

Holyday, the deputy mayor whose win gave the provincial Tories their first seat in Toronto since 2003, said he was “disappointed” by the backbiting.

“I think Tim’s done a great job. I know during the campaign I heard from people at the door that they’re upset with the Liberals and they wanted change,” he said.

“They didn’t comment about Tim — whether he was good, bad or indifferent. They just want change. They know we have a good leader.”

In Brockville, Premier Kathleen Wynne brushed off questions about Hudak’s woes that have dominated media coverage at Queen’s Park since the byelections.

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“I’m not going to comment on what may be happening in another party. I don’t think the people of Ontario are that worried about internal party workings,” Wynne told reporters.

But privately, senior Liberals express a mixture of both delight and concern at Hudak’s problems.

They are happy about the internecine battles, but do not want the Tories to pick a new leader because they feel they can again defeat the current one in a general election expected next year.

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