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Tory's New Tactic
Friday, October 5, 2007

Easily, the issue that has dominated this election campaign has been funding for religious schools. While I have my own opinion on the issue, what is most interesting to me is the tactics our politicians are forced to use in order to be elected.

John Tory began the campaign saying that, if elected, he would extend funding to all religious schools. He based his position on his principles of fairness. If Catholic schools are funded, it only seems fair to fund all religious schools. Other parties and lobby groups have offered their own solution which is to not fund any religious schools. Other parties are preferring to leave things the way they are.

The problem John Tory faced was that his position was very unpopular. The issue dominated, and Tory found himself dropping in the polls. Recently, Tory has switched tactics. He is now saying that, if elected, he will allow an open vote on the issue. While he will vote to extend funding to religious schools, other members of his party would be free to vote as they pleased. In a word, Tory is backpedalling.

If this issue was a matter of principle at the beginning of the campaign, surely it still is now.

I'm sure there are voters who agree that if one religious school is funded, all must be. So why is the Ontario PC Party backing down on their "principled" stand?

The answer is electability. Polls have shown that the Ontario PC Party would likely not be elected based on their position on funding religious education.

If their position was a matter of principle, why not campaign on that principle? Unfortunately, that doesn't work under our current election system. Political parties determine their platform based on what can get them elected.

If we were using a Mixed Member Proportional system, a political party could afford to take a stand based on principles. For voters, we would get a chance to vote for a party who stands for what we really believe in. We can vote for who we really want to vote for.