Tory gets his star candidate

I commented many months ago about John Tory addressing the radical Ontario Landowners Association. He must have made a pretty strong case, as co-founder Randy Hillier has now elected to seek the Tory nomination of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. For the sake of review, Hillier's organization opposes any governmental encroachment. These include The Nutrient Management Act, Environmental Protection Act, Species at Risk Act, Fish and Wildlife Act, environmental buffer zones annd drinking water regulations.

Here is the OLA's treatment of the Clean Water Act, for example:
"The perfect storm of injustice is tracking for, and is soon to converge over rural Ontario. Powered by the winds of deceptive environmentalism, and a rising tide of regulated fascism, the heavy squalls of social apathy approach, at the storms eye is Bill 43 "The clean water act." When the storm hits, pounding rains of tyranny will overcome the dykes and walls of common sense that surrounds and protects Canadians from injustice."

Hillier's own Lanark Landowners' Association decries "using taxpayer's dollars [to] support and promote Quebec, Native, Arts, Homosexual, Urban and Multi cultures." (Most of that isn't a sentence but the spirit of the thing shines through).

The association also dabbles in political leader satirizing. The federal Conservatives had "Mr. Dithers". The Liberals has "Mr. Muzzle" or something. The HLA has the cleverly rendered (see below) Dolly McGuinty. They refer to him as a her. Get it? Pretty sophisticated stuff. "She" (giggle) says stuff like "It's just not fair that people who don't have a degree and wear work-boots should be able to own land, and have guns, and vote, and scare us." Yup - they got his number.

John Tory undertook a concerted effort to moderate his party when he became leader. What is remarkable is that headed into the '07 election, the Ontario PCs have in some respects never looked more extreme.