BATRA: A lack of leadership

Article content

“If the PC Party of Ontario can’t govern themselves, how do they expect to govern the province?“

The narrative writes itself for the Liberals. And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.

For the last few weeks, the PC Party has been thrown into chaos following former leader Patrick Brown’s stunning, dead of the night resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations.

But just as some semblance of normalcy started creeping into the party with four names emerging in the race to replace Brown as leader, he has dragged them right back to square one.

By announcing his intention to enter the leadership race, Brown has displayed an extraordinary lack of judgment.

Let’s not forget what landed his party here in the first place — his alleged actions.

And yes, he has every right to defend himself, as he certainly was not afforded that opportunity when the CTV story first broke. However, his party was moving on without him as he cleared his name — something he has not yet done in spite of his claims. To be sure, key aspects of the allegations against Brown have fallen apart, notably that one of his accusers was not in fact underage, a significant reversal from CTV’s original report.

His ardent defenders will say that he resigned as leader under false accusations and therefore has every right to claim what was originally his. That’s a fair point.

But politics isn’t fair.

Without a doubt, what happened to Brown was brutal, and one can only imagine what he has gone through in the past weeks.

He lost everything he worked hard for in just one day based on ever-changing allegations.

Yet, entering the race, in such a clumsy fashion as he did at the eleventh hour on Friday, is painfully selfish.

Three weeks ago, Patrick Brown looked like a skilled player in the game of politics. He helped rebuild the party’s organization from the ground up, got them out of debt, grew the membership and built a substantial polling lead. It’s understandable that he doesn’t want to give up the prize.

But Ontario is not a prize, and this election is not about what he did or didn’t do with some young women. This election is about bigger issues facing Ontario, and here we are, talking about a party sideshow.

If Brown truly cared about Ontarians, and if he genuinely felt this was about defeating Kathleen Wynne’s politically-corrupt Liberals, then he would stay on the sidelines, clear his name and be part of the broader team that can win the election in June.

Instead, he has chosen to make himself the story.

It’s certainly possible — yet unlikely — he can win the leadership. And if he does lose, will it have been worth it to rip apart a party that he claims to be loyal to, even though it wasn’t loyal to him?

Brown’s latest actions are not that of a leader, and he may have very well just handed the Liberals their re-election.

abatra@postmedia.com