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Save for its defiant originality, decapitation by one’s own hand has little to recommend it as a political tactic. Apart from the advanced demands it places on the carpet cleaners, it leaves very little opportunity for followup. There is, for example the teasing question of where, or even if, to place the mike at subsequent press briefings. Many are therefore puzzled, even to the outer limits of perplexity, that the Ontario Tories have twice called in the guillotine as the opening gambit for this year’s June election campaign.

In the words of the prime minister’s favourite poet, these past two weeks the Ontario Tories “went downward to darkness on extended wings.” Let us reprise the highlights.

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Less than 11 days ago the Tories, under the pristine leadership of Patrick Brown, were in clear and present danger of winning the election soon to fall on this province. Premier Kathleen Wynne was at a place in the polls vividly captured by the verbal cameo “lower than a snake’s belly.” High officials of the Liberal party had been dragged through court proceedings. Outrage at power prices had roiled the populace. The shamanry — pundits, pollsters and prognosticators — all agreed: The Tories could fall asleep for the next few months, and victory was theirs.