Finally, Ontario voters have a glimmer of what the province’s Progressive Conservatives would do if they win the next election set for June 7.

Last week the PCs took a stand: if they do take over at Queen’s Park in just over six months’ time, they’ll cancel the dollar-an-hour increase in the minimum wage that’s now scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019. Instead, they’ll spread that out over four years, getting to the $15-an-hour level only in 2022.

Their position was notable not because of the substance of the issue; delaying any increase in the minimum wage is about what you’d expect from a Conservative party looking to bolster its support among business interests.

It stood out more because it’s one of very few specific stands the PCs have taken under leader Patrick Brown, whose election strategy clearly amounts to staying as quiet as possible and encouraging voters to ponder all the things they don’t like about Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government.

At this point, though, that’s getting to be a pretty tired approach. And it will get harder to sustain as of next weekend, when the PCs gather for what they’re billing as an “election readiness and policy convention.”

The most notable thing about the so-called policy convention is the almost total lack of meaningful policies that are likely to be discussed. Brown himself has talked more about what won’t be on the agenda — social conservative initiatives are “off-limits, period,” he says — than what will be.

And most of the proposals submitted in advance are full of generalities about streamlining government services, “making life more affordable,” and so on. Voters are unlikely to have any better idea of what the PCs would actually do in government after the Nov. 25 meeting than they do now.

As an election strategy, this may well make sense. The Liberals will have been in power for 15 years by next June, and by now are being held responsible for every sparrow that falls from the sky. After so long in office they’ve made lots of mistakes and accumulated plenty of enemies, and voters may conclude that it’s simply time for a change.

But six months out from the election, the PCs are doing voters a disservice by dodging almost all the big issues. They haven’t said whether they will support the government’s plans to distribute marijuana once it is legalized next summer. Nor do they plan to debate other key Liberal policies, such as making prescription drugs free for young people, broadening rent control, or bringing in free tuition for lower-income students.

For democracy to work properly, voters need an alternative. But so far Brown’s PCs are offering mostly a big question mark for anyone looking around for a change in government.

The Liberals, to their credit, are offering a lot. They can be accused of many things, but unlike many governments that have been in power for a long time they can’t be faulted for taking no risks or simply running out of steam.

In the past year or so they have brought in a series of progressive measures that will have long-term effects on the province.

They include the substantial increase in the minimum wage (it jumps from $11.60 to $14 on Jan. 1); the “OHIP+” plan that will provide free prescription drugs for anyone under 25; more daycare spaces and full-day kindergarten; relief on hydro bills; free post-secondary tuition for students from modest backgrounds; and enhanced public pensions (which started as an Ontario-only initiative but became national).

Taken together, all this amounts to what Susan Delacourt, writing in iPolitics this past week, calls “a large-scale experiment in progressive governance — in finding policies to fight the politics of grievance, populism and polarization.” Whether it adds up to a successful strategy for re-election remains to be seen. But regardless of that, these measures at least address the inequities that plague all modern societies — including Ontario.

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Against this agenda, Brown’s PCs (and the New Democrats as well) should be spelling out an alternative approach so voters can make an informed decision next June.

Ducking the hard issues and simply hoping Ontarians are in the mood for a change at the top may make sense in the political backrooms. But it doesn’t do justice to the electorate, and the PCs should do better starting next weekend.

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