The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is in the midst of a leadership race as it seeks to replace John Tory. There is a relatively strong connection between the Ontario PC party and the federal Conservative Party of Canada. Harper ministers John Baird, Tony Clement, and Jim Flaherty were all cabinet ministers when Mike Harris was the PC premier of Ontario.
The relationship between the PC Party of Ontario and the federal Conservatives right now is an interesting one for the simple reason that they find themselves on opposite sides of a very important tax issues: The decision by Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty to merge the GST and PST into one Harmonized Sales Tax. This is something that federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been pushing for since he came to Ottawa. Despite their differences on some other issues, Flaherty thinks McGuinty is absolutely right when it comes to the HST.
Like most members of the PC Party of Ontario, Christine Elliott thinks McGuinty is absolutely wrong on the HST issue. Elliott is among those running to replace Tory and she just happens to be the spouse of the federal finance minister who likes McGuinty's plan. For that reason, Elliott's campaign is extra-interesting for those of us keeping an eye on federal politics.
Today, Elliott was in Ottawa as part of her campaign and, thanks to Twitter, we know a little bit about a reception held for her at a pub just off of the Parliamentary Precinct.
Here's an edited version of the Twitter playback:
Chad Craig:
- Rumour has it Christine Elliott had a huge turnout of federal CPC members tonight at the Elephant & Castle in Ottawa!
Christine Elliott (who you can follow on Twitter @votechristine):
- Great to see Rahim Jaffer, MP Colin Carrie and Mayor O'Brien tonight!
- Thank you to Ministers (Lisa) Raitt (NRCAN), (Peter) MacKay (Defence), (Rona) Ambrose (Labour), (Helena) Guergis (Status of Women), (Stephen) Fletcher (Democratic Reform)…and of course (Jim) Flaherty (Finance) for coming out tonight.
- Great to see (Conservative) MPs Greg Rickford, Mike Wallace, Bruce Stanton at my event. (All three are Ontario MPs – Rickford from northwestern Ontario, Wallace from Burlington and Stanton from the Orillia area.)
Richard Ciano:
- Packed house for Christine Elliott at Elephant and Castle. (Ottawa) Mayor (Larry) O'Brien just arrived.
- Minister Fletcher and (Peterborough Conservative MP) Dean Del Mastro here for Christine Elliott too.