On May 9, the once dominant Ontario Progressive Conservative party will choose its next leader. The surprisingly shallow PC gene pool has rendered up two political lightweights at a time when the party needs strong, transformative leadership.

For the long-serving Liberal government, this may seem like good news — it will likely continue to operate without effective opposition on the right — but for the province it’s clearly not. A healthy democracy gives the electorate competing choices, something the PCs have failed to do for over a decade.

The current leadership campaign demonstrates just how far the Progressive Conservatives have fallen from their former glory — and just how hard it will be for them to return to form.

I am old enough to remember and have worked for several of the titans of the Ontario Tory dynasty. Their rule lasted for four decades — one of the longest serving democratic governments in the world. It began under George Drew in 1943 and gained momentum with progressive leaders like Leslie Frost and John Robarts, who played key roles on the national scene.

The “Big Blue Machine” era followed under Bill Davis’s deft political hand. From 1971 until 1985, Davis’s centralist policies made him one of the most popular politicians in Ontario history. In 1995 the “Common Sense Revolution” led by Mike Harris returned the Tories to power for two terms.

But since 2002 the party has failed to find a politically savvy leader who resonates with Ontarians. Even more worrying, recently failed Tory leaders like Ernie Eves, John Tory (open John Tory's policard) and Tim Hudak brought much more experience to the job than either of today’s two contenders.

The current leadership race remains one of Ontario’s best kept secrets. Instead of raising the party’s profile and engaging the electorate, the two remaining candidates are exciting few outside the party ranks.

Patrick Brown, 36, captured the Barrie seat for the federal PCs in 2006. His tenure as an MP has been underwhelming. During nine years in Ottawa, Brown failed to hold a significant post. Harper overlooked him for the chairmanship of a House of Commons Committee and for a parliamentary secretary role.

Brown’s main accomplishment has been signing up thousands of new members. But a search of his policy platform yields up a series of tired bromides: “Living in Ontario must be affordable, safe and enjoyable. We must reduce waste, eliminate the deficit and reduce debt.” (No position yet on motherhood). And, no indication of how any of this would be realized.

Christine Elliott, 60, has a slightly more consequential political resumé. She’s been the Tory MPP for Whitby-Oshawa since 2006 and served as the party’s deputy leader and opposition critic for several portfolios. But her unremarkable years in these roles have helped to label her part of “the old guard” — a group that’s lost the last three elections.

The party’s problems go beyond the scarcity of leadership talent.

The campaign has descended into a nasty war of words. Elliott was the early leader with the most impressive endorsements. But the momentum has shifted to her younger opponent. Frustrated by this development, Elliott issued a scathing, personal attack on Brown — the kind that’s usually reserved for the leaders of opposing parties.

“He is an untested candidate with nothing more to offer than a life lived as a career politician. Worse yet, over the course of his time spent in office he has done little of consequence, and has no substantive record.”

His campaign team went on to accuse Elliott’s team of directing harassing phone calls to some of his supporters with “non-English names.” Brown is courting ethnic communities as key part of his campaign.

These admonishments are hard to take back after a leadership convention is over. That’s when the winner has to bring the two camps together and go forward as a unified team.

So far the race is absent any serious policy debate. Neither candidate seems able or willing to tell Ontarians how they would make Ontario a better place to live, work and invest.

It’s attractive policy ideas that can capture the attention of the broader voting public. Instead, the race has centred on conflicting claims about who has signed-up the most members, and personal attacks.

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Meanwhile, the Liberals and NDP are watching closely — likely taking considerable comfort from this leadership-light contest. But the storied Ontario PC party and the voters they seek to serve deserve far better.

R. Michael Warren is a former corporate director, Ontario deputy minister, TTC chief general manager and Canada Post CEO. r.michael.warren@gmail.com

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