Breaking with Progressive Conservative orthodoxy that tax cuts trump all other public policy initiatives, rookie Tory Leader Patrick Brown is dragging his party to the political centre.

As Brown unveiled the Conservatives’ demands for Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s Feb. 25 budget, the traditional call to slash taxes was conspicuously absent.

“We will not be blindly partisan; I don’t believe in having to stay in strict ideological compartments,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park.

To that end, Brown wants Sousa’s spending plan to feature some kind of relief for electricity ratepayers, including a stop to the sale of further shares in Hydro One, the provincial transmission utility, as well more funding for health care, while also balancing the budget by 2017-18.

“I’m highlighting the three areas that we’ve heard most often at the door,” said the Tory leader, who took the helm of the party last May and is gearing up for his first provincial budget as opposition chief.

“I believe these are the most urgent issues right now,” he said.

“There are some Liberals who have privately said to me that ‘you have to support the privatization of Hydro One.’ I said: ‘No, we don’t have to support anything.’ We will judge everything on its merits.”

While Brown bested his more moderate rival Christine Elliott for the Tory crown last spring by appealing to social conservatives and other right-wingers, he has been shifting the party to the centre since.

“We will consider any idea, regardless if it’s historically NDP or Liberal or Conservative, if it meets what’s required to get Ontario back on track.”

Brown emphasized that, unlike some of his predecessors, he wants grass-roots Tories to develop policy; he does not want to impose it on them.

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