Monday, May 25, 2009

PC Leadership Websites: Let's Sing a Song for Tim

All of a suden, things have gotten very interesting in the Ontario PC leadership race. As detailled on TLS, Tim Hudak appears to have come down with a bad case of front runners syndrome. Weak membership sales, low fundraising numbers, and a growingly hostile press corps have left Hudak on the verge of becoming the next Jim Dinning.

But, on the bright side, he does have a nice website!

Check out reviews of Randy Hillier and Christine Elliott's sites. Also, perezhudak.com seems to be the go-to site for PC leadership news.


Tagline: Right for Ontario

Unofficial Tagline: There's no possible way he can lose. Right? Right? RIGHT?!?!!?

Image: Hudak is the only candidate wearing a tie in his banner photo - read into that what you will. The heavenly white light radiating from around his picture may also be a subtle play to evangelical voters...

The Basics: The site has the standard set-up, although I do like the "get involved" box on the right hand side - they've designed the website as a vehicle to get people engaged in the campaign, and it does a good job of encouraging supporters to do that.

Web 2.0: Hudak has at least put some effort into this side of his campaign, with facebook applications, frequent twitter updates, and an online community on his website. They've also been pushing the "text message update" angle of their campaign - I'm not sure how many numbers they'll get, but I do feel it's worth trying these sorts of things.

Meet Tim: I've never met Tim, and I don't have much against him - he ran a bracketed poll on his website a few years back to find Canada's Greatest Nation Builder...so, yeah, we're kind of kindred spirits in that respect.

This former Walmart employee (future campaign slogan "everyday low taxes"), was elected as an MPP at the age of 27, and served in Mike Harris' Cabinet. Although not using as many anvils as Randy "common sense" Hillier, Hudak has tried to portray himself as the heir apparent to the Harris legacy, and he has even gotten some help from the former Premier.

Policy: Like many frontrunners, Hudak has been annoyingly cautious in this race, not wanting to step on any toes. And he's starting to suffer from it - when newspapers start using air quotes when mentioning your "vision", it's not a good sign.

There is nothing on his website about what Hudak would do as party leader, other than "unite our party behind a winning conservative plan that can get Ontario working". Well, other than his bold stand against the HST (or, DST, as all the cool kids are calling it these days).

He did come out in favour of dismantling Ontario's Human Rights Tribunals (after Hillier), but that has let Christine Elliott attack him as a supporter of faith-based-funding-the-sequel.




Rating: The campaign may be floundering, but this website is the best of the bunch - 8 out of 10.

Can he win? Hudak has gone from a slam-dunk favourite, to the front runner, to someone with a good chance of winning, in just a few weeks. The leaked membership numbers are not encouraging for Hudak, but when votes are weighted by riding, it becomes more difficult to judge relative strength of the candidates.

Perhaps more alarming for Hudak are the early fundraising numbers. Elliott has raised twice as much cash as him (315k to 154k), and has more total donors (although at 154 to 124, neither one has done a very good job of grass roots fundraising). Those who have followed this blog since the days of Bart Ramson will remember I did first ballot projections back during the 2006 Liberal leadership race, and hit fairly close to the mark. Back in the fall, when I thought we'd have an actual Liberal leadership race again, I dug up the old projections in an effort to tweak the formula, and found that the total number of donors was the best indication of first ballot support - ahead of things like total dollars raised, MP endorsements, ex-officio support, or media attention. Obviously the dynamics of this abbreviated PC race are different, but this isn't a good sign for Tim.

Still, no one will take this contest on the first ballot. So Hudak will need to appeal to Hillier and Klees supporters - as a candidate seen to be right of Elliott he may be able to do just that, but it's always difficult for front runners to generate second ballot support.

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5 Comments:

  • First off, thanks for the link.

    "So Hudak will need to appeal to Hillier and Klees supporters - as a candidate seen to be right of Elliott he may be able to do just that"

    Rumour has it Klees would back Elliot over Hudak (and that Klees' also opposes getting rid of the tribunals, and whose campaign joined Elliot in making anon comments to media that it would be faith-based funding part 2, would seem to lend some credence to this.)

    It looks like it might come down to Hudak/Hillier vs. Elliot/Klees.

    By Blogger William Norman, at 10:01 a.m.  

  • Even if Klees or Hillier endorse, you can't really control your supporters in a OMOV, the way you can at a delegated convention.

    It's not like Hillier can really stand up and say "hey guys, if I dont' win, vote for Tim", because he'll keep up the pretence that he's in it to win up until the votes.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 11:38 a.m.  

  • Liberal friends at Queens Park say Premier preparing to run against Hudak. Hillier can't win the leadership race, and the Elliot/Klees camp doesn't have the organization to defeat Tim Hudak. Provincial politics is all about the organization, and Hudak's people are everywhere. It didn't go unnoticed that Klees camp bused people into the debates.

    By Anonymous Anthony, at 11:50 a.m.  

  • I'm not plugged into the party provincially, but Elliott gives off a John Tory vibe. This election is all about positioning yourself as "not John Tory", so her run as the establishment/left wing candidate is, er, interesting.

    All of the activists I know saw the problem with Tory as an unwillingness to fight for policy and the worst political instincts ever. He did the face ads (showing horrible instincts) and then tried to be impossibly nice afterwards, learning the wrong lessons. So he threw out the religious schools policy, let Dalton fear monger about Muslim schools (hey we're supposed to be the ones mentioning the dangers of Islamism, thank you very much), and never came out strongly as to why it should have been done (candidates had no talking points...)

    Elliott seems at risk of being a Jane Pitfield, no real ideas or fire in the belly. Very well connected and establishment backing though. Since we've failed horribly with that already...

    Guess we'll find out. The fundraising is pretty BS though, since the difference in donor #s is miniscule and the $ for Elliott came from about 5 people. She can outspend Hudak (possibly) but the cash doesn't really represent a committed base.

    If Klees does line up against Hudak it could be a replay of Alberta's leadership, with 2 rightwing candidates hating each other and getting a rather horrible outcome.

    By Blogger Hey, at 8:43 p.m.  

  • Are you insane? Tim's website is total crap.

    It's actually awful.

    I say this as someone who is neutral in the race.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:06 p.m.  

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