Randy Hillier responds to Ford Government
When you have been around political publishing as long as I have, nothing should ever surprise one. The fall from grace in politics is most often self inflicted. Either by something you say, something you said or an act you committed in your life that is considered abhorrent by the general population. Much of this is covered up (in the closet) but when required brought to the fore by your supposed friends and now political enemies. Hence, the another type of fall from grace is often orchestrated by the puppet masters and made very public. In most cases hey are not the politicians themselves but rather the close advisers, the party elite and special interests that clearly have a bigger agenda.
In my youth, after the end of a national party convention I asked a simple and clearly naive question to the then President of the Party. “Would it not be better for us to lose the next election and figure out what we want to bring to Canadians to make our country stronger and better for all?’ No Dean, “you don’t understand, this is about power and staying in power. Nothing more, Nothing less.” With that statement I left organized politics to engage in publishing books. On the political front we published books that might influence debate and public discourse by politicians with vision, honesty, integrity but most importantly, passion.
As publisher of the Brown book we certainly took Randy’s actions against Brown to task in the book and in the context of the infamous caucus emergency call. Perhaps if Randy had it all to do again, he might choose a different path, but that is a matter of idle speculation at this point. What we do know, is that when we dissect Randy’s quote below, it could have been written by Patrick Brown. It is certainly consistent with Mr. Brown’s take on some of the former caucus members and their actions as it related to the grab for power and to do anything in their power to discredit and malign his character. It also speaks to the contempt he had for the Liberals and how they too had become lame and corrupt. .
"Like many people, I had high hopes and expectations with the election of a PC government after 15 years of Liberal mismanagement, scandals, and harmful policies," he wrote.
"I could not stand by and tolerate operatives engaging in similar and more egregious acts."
Politics can be a dangerous business when you are close to power and once there, the immortal words of Lord Acton come to mind. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." While I fundamentally disagree with his perspective on great men (or women) it was stated at a time when social equality and the furthering of rights of the proletariat were being paid lip service by the elites and powerful people from his class. I am sure he knew an evil bugger or two or three and had watched how those individuals used that power to further their own personal and family interests.
Patrick was different and his approach to running government was inclusive and diverse. Ontario would be succeeding now in charting a new path but with compassion and care as they made the types of changes necessary for Ontario to succeed in the future. Randy is now on his own, a cast away and considered by his former friends as a rogue despot. Now it is just a question of time as to when the next shoe drops on this government. Randy’s is the second departure of a PC caucus member who stood up to the backroom guys who seem to have a firm grip on how consultation and governance takes place or not within the PC Party of Ontario…. Or should we just call them the Large C onservative Party of Ontario.
There is clearly nothing Progressive about most of this lot. As for Randy, I am sure we have not heard the last from him.