Save for its defiant originality, decapitation by one’s own hand has little to recommend it as a political tactic. Many are therefore puzzled, even to the outer limits of perplexity, that the Ontario Tories have twice called in the guillotine as the opening gambit for this year’s June election campaign. In the words of the prime minister’s favourite poet, these past two weeks the Ontario Tories “went downward to darkness on extended wings.” Let us reprise the highlights. Misfortune doesn’t just pay random visits to the Ontario Conservative party: it recognizes the party as its home and native land. And the Ontario Tories have lavishly demonstrated that they have mastered the arts of political suicide, brand destruction and campaign dysfunction to a degree unknown since the first full moon shone over the troubled waters of Lake Ontario.

Source: National Post February 02, 2018 17:47 UTC