When Conservatives battle Conservatives

OAKVILLE, ONT.—One of the odd things about politics is how quickly ideological allies can turn into enemies. Certainly, in the conservative world, for instance, right-wing advocacy groups will sometimes go from praising a political party one day to denouncing it the next. Case in point, Colin T. Brown, the chair of the National Citizens Coalition—one of Canada’s oldest conservative groups and an organization known for savagely assailing Liberals—recently posted a message on the NCC’s website that severely castigated Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford. In fact, Brown demanded Ford immediately step down as PC leader, due to his handling of the COVID crisis. Wrote the NCC chair: “A great leader should be able to resist his own power. Instead, Doug Ford has leapt at every chance to restrict our freedoms and manage our lives. Bungled police-state announcements and bozo comments about drunken golfers showed a leader who had clearly lost his way. His hollow empathy for small businesses owners is unbelievable when placed against his record, and his plans to slowly—if ever—fully reopen Ontario.” Then, after claiming Ford has “disenfranchised his base," Brown adds. “If Doug Ford wants to give the conservative voters who supported him in 2018 any hope for the future of Ontario, he should use his June reopening dates to inform his cabinet and his caucus that he will not seek re-election.” This is harsh talk. But should it concern Ford and his PC party? Well, the answer is, yes and no. No, because Brown’s denunciation likely won’t register much beyond NCC supporters and, yes, because I’d wager many of the NCC’s donors also donate to the PC party, as there’s always an overlap between party and activist group membership bases. The point I’m making here is that Brown’s ferocious attack on Ford may not have any impact on the polls, but it might convince NCC donors to stop giving money to the Ontario PC party. And to help that happen, the NCC’s fundraisers will probably do everything they can to convince their donors to stop making financial contributions to the PCs, suggesting they give that money instead to the NCC, as a way of “sending Ford a message.” The reason I say that is because that’s what I used to do when I was a fundraiser for the NCC. I remember how back in the mid 1980s, when Larry Grossman, a Red Tory, was Ontario PC leader, we sent out a letter to NCC supporters urging them to give this message to the party: “You’re too red, until you turn blue, you won’t see any of my green.” Naturally, we also suggested they send that “green” to the NCC. So, in a way, Brown’s assault against Ford might also be a tad opportunistic. If the PCs have an unpopular leader, it’s a great chance for the NCC to siphon away some of their dollars. At any rate, Ford can respond to Brown’s challenge in one of three ways. First off, he can attack the NCC as a “right-wing” group that doesn’t represent his brand of moderate, pragmatic conservatism. Secondly, he can cast Brown as a renegade, as someone who’s disloyal to the conservative cause. It’s an easy case to make; he just needs to argue that the NCC’s attacks are actually helping the Liberals and the NDP, while undermining the PC party, which is Ontario’s only option when it comes to stopping the socialist threat. Ford’s final option is to ignore Brown’s attack, which is likely his best move. After all, the last thing he needs right now is a conservative civil war. Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant. The Hill Times