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The Perth and District Community Newspaper since 1834 September 5, 2013 | 76 pages
www.insideottawavalley.com
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Inside NEWS
Sea Cadets excel at summer training. — Page 2
COMMUNITY
Photo by DESMOND DEVOY
MORE THAN A WALK AROUND THE BLOCK And they’re off! Racers take their first of many strides and steps for the Glen Tay Block Race in front of the Perth Museum, heading off down Gore Street East, heading out into the countryside to Glen Tay in Tay Valley Township, before heading back in around Scotch Line, back on to Gore Street, and the finish line awaiting them at the museum on Aug. 29. See page P18 for more photos.
Hillier hopes Hudak leadership vote will clear the air By DESMOND DEVOY desmond.devoy@metroland.com
L l golfer Local lf Will BBellamy ll makes k waves on the links – in Alberta! — Page P1
SPORTS
Former Blue Wings top scorer, Brett Madigan signs hockey deal in Germany. — Page P15
News – Randy Hillier says he did not want his ruminations about Tim Hudak’s continued leadership of the Progressive Conservative party to be made public. But, made public they were, in the guise of a letter sent to the party’s president, Richard Ciano, and copied to other members of the party executive, on Aug. 6, in which he expressed his hope that another leadership vote would clear the air for Hudak. “It was the unexpected release of this confidential letter to the Toronto media that brought my position on the matter to public light,” wrote the Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington MPP in an email exchange with this newspaper on Friday, Aug. 23. “My position, although occasionally distorted and torqued by some in the media and political circles, is expressed with clarity in my original correspondence with the P.C. Party…This letter is the best clarification or comment I can provide you, as it speaks directly and completely to my position.” The party will meet later this month in London, Ont., for its annual policy convention. Tory leaders in Ontario only face a leadership review in the months after a losing election. Hudak, who defeated Hillier for the party leadership in 2009, won his leadership vote in February of
2012 with 78.7 per cent support, after losing the provincial election the previous Oct. 6. The calls for a new look at Hudak’s leadership came after the party only picked up one seat out of five by-elections held on Thursday, Aug. 1, where it had been leading in polls in at least two other by-elections that day before the polls closed. “Despite making tremendous gains in the last general election and winning a seat in Toronto for the first time in nearly two decades, there are party members and media pundits who have come out against Tim’s leadership, in particular since these last by-elections,” wrote Hillier to Ciano. “This proposed amendment is evidence of that. Historically, publicly-expressed doubts, when they are left unattended, have proved most damaging to our leader’s image and our party’s morale.” Hillier charged in his letter that “that continued, unaddressed criticism of Tim will subject him to a death by a thousand cuts. To me, our party and leader deserve more than that.” He urged that the board allow for the proposed constitutional amendment to be debated in London, since, from his point of view, “anything less will be viewed as procedural manipulation and raise further suspicion and ire… Giving the party an open forum to discuss this matter will shut the door once and for all on our leader’s detractors.” By not allowing this, Hillier charged
that it could very well hurt the party’s chances at the next election. While scheduled for the fall of 2015 under the fixedelection date law, with a minority government at Queen’s Park, it could come at any time. It appears as though Hillier got his wish last week when Ciano announced on Aug. 26 that he, the party executive, and constitution committee, had voted unanimously to allow for a debate over a new leadership review process. This comes despite the reported protests of Hudak. After a debate, a show of hands will be used to vote on the motion during the Sept. 20 to 22 meeting. According to the Toronto Star, the motion states that “party members should be able to trigger a leadership review no sooner than 14 months after the previous review…and no later than six months before a scheduled province-wide election.” “The party executive was of a similar mindset to myself and followed through with the right course of action,” said Hillier during a telephone interview with the Courier on Friday, Aug. 30. “It’s always important, in my view…that people have a time and place to speak, whether you agree with them or not.” Until now, Hillier charged that party members only had “one avenue, one process,” to deal with leadership questions. If approved, “this creates a secondary process,” though he noted that it would require a two-thirds majority of delegates
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in London – and he hasn’t even seen the wording of the amendment yet, one of nine proposed constitutional amendments. “I promised I would never vote on something that I had not read. It would be jumping the gun,” said Hillier. “Never was it a case of…a leadership review. I have confidence in people to weigh the arguments. I feel people should be more engaged in democracy.” Hillier had not intended for his letter to be made public, and said “I was absolutely surprised,” when it hit the Toronto media, and by the stir it caused. He said that allowing members a process to be able to challenge a leader’s grip on power has “merit to the concept,” and that he did not want to see a situation like occurred in Australia, where Labour leader Kevin Rudd swept to power in 2007, before being ousted by Julia Gillard in 2010 – only for Rudd to wrench power back from her this past summer, in the lead up to a federal election this Saturday. “The membership was not consulted at all,” said Hillier of the internal Aussie tussle, which makes the Tory dispute seem tame in comparison. “You certainly don’t want to get into (a situation like) that.” Hillier was unsure whether he would speak to the party constitution amendment in London later this month. “I don’t necessarily speak to every amendment,” he said, having spoken in favour, and against, amendments at party get-togethers in the past.
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