ONTARIO'S OFFICIAL OPPOSITIONLESSNESS
Progressive Conservative Opposition Condemns Liberals, but Fails to Provide Solutions

January 30, 2005 - Uxbridge, Ontario

John Tory, seatless leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposion, today issued a release stating "In the wake of another example of the mounting problems in Ontario's health care system, John Tory, leader of the Ontario PC Party, called on Premier Dalton McGuinty to show leadership and finally lay out a plan for improving the health system."

The press release condemns the Liberal government's plans without providing a scintilla of evidence that Mr. Tory has a differing plan. This is in keeping with virtually every press release issued by Mr. Tory since he became the leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) party in September of 2004.

Paul McKeever, similarly seatless leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario, says the Official Opposition is not doing its job. "The job of the Official Opposition is not merely to provide semi-weekly quotable puns about the performance of the government" says McKeever. "It is not enough to simply say that the Liberals have 'pooched' a dog bite policy, to say that green belt plans have been a matter of 'political science' instead of 'real science', or to chime in unison that the government's health care plan seems to have been 'written on the back of a cocktail napkin'. If he ever wins a seat in the Legislature, Mr. Tory is supposed to be the leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition, not a court jester.

"The Opposition's job is not just to demand 'better management' of an obviously broken system. It is not merely to mindlessly call for more 'honesty', 'accountability', 'transparency' and other buzz words. It is not to iteratively babble that 'the minister should step down' every time there is the slightest political mileage to be made sheerly out of the iteration itself.

"The role of the opposition, first and foremost, is to identify what is wrong about government policy and to champion what is right, as a solution. What is more, the Official Opposition must do so even though it is inevitably going to involve upsetting someone who benefits from dysfunctional aspects of the status quo.

"But John Tory and his Progressive Conservatives are showing a complete lack of intellectual rigour and courage. The disturbing fact is that Ontario is officially oppositionless."

This media release has been sent to all major print, radio, and television media, to all parties with Members in the Legislature, and to all of Ontario's MPPs.

For further information, contact Freedom Party of Ontario's leader, Paul McKeever:

Office: 905-721-9772
Cell: ***-***-****
e-mail