Jailing the homeless 2.0

Need you be reminded, the following was written about Jim Flaherty's first failed attempt to become leader of the Ontario Conservatives and his policy of jailing the homeless:

Scourge of the homeless
The Globe and Mail
February 16, 2002
EDITORIAL

"Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was looking for publicity, and he found it. When quizzed by reporters, he had no idea what his policy of dragging the homeless off somewhere, anywhere, would cost. He just wanted it done. He wanted to solve a complex social problem by sending out special police squads.”


Will Jim Flaherty be the next leader of the Ontario Tories?
By Andy Radia | Canada Politics – Fri, 28 Oct, 2011
Yahoo News

Stephen Harper could be losing his most senior cabinet minister.

A column in Thursday's Toronto Star notes there are good reasons to believe finance minister Jim Flaherty will shift to provincial politics and make a play for the leadership of the Ontario Tories.

"(Flaherty) is reportedly tired of the heavy international travel required in his job, which keeps him away from his Whitby home for long stretches at a time. Also, Flaherty realizes his boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, isn't likely to step aside until well after the next election in 2015. Flaherty, who finished second to Eves in the 2002 provincial leadership race, has made little secret that he wants to run his own show," journalist Bob Hepburn notes.

"At the same time, Flaherty's wife, MPP Christine Elliott, who ran and lost against Hudak in 2009 for the party leadership, is said to be tiring of Queen's Park and would happily step aside for her husband to run in her Whitby-Oshawa riding."

Losing Flaherty would be a significant loss to the Harper government.

Canada's finance minister is well-respected both nationally and internationally and is credited for successfully steering Canada through the last recession.

But Canada's loss would be Ontario's gain - and Tim Hudak's pain.

Even without the threat of a Flaherty leadership bid, Hudak, the current leader of the Ontario PCs, was already headed for troubled waters.

Paul Tuns of the Ottawa Citizen suggests there are many Conservatives who blame Hudak for not dislodging the Liberals from power despite a double-digit lead in the polls just 12 weeks before the October 6 election.

Adding to Hudak's woes, is the decision by Tory MPP and former leadership rival, Frank Klees, to break ranks with Hudak and run for speaker of the legislature.

Klees's move is a blow to Hudak because if he becomes Speaker, he would reduce the number of voting opposition members to 53, the same number the minority Liberal government has.

And, by virtue of parliamentary tradition, the Speaker votes with the government on crucial issues, which would result in the Liberals staying in power until 2015.

The Conservatives' constitution requires the party to hold a leadership review vote at the first party convention after an election defeat, notes Hepburn.

If Flaherty were to declare his intention to seek the leadership before the convention planned for early 2012, it could spell the end for Hudak's reign as PC leader.