Why not Randy Hillier as leader of the Ontario PC Party?

Does it really sound that scary?

They said he was too militant, rude, ornery, pushy and a whole bunch of other pejoratives - at least in their minds - when he co-founded and became president of, first, the Lanark Landowners Association, and later the Ontario Landowners Association.

They said he was all those things and more when he ran for the PC nomination in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington and then for MPP in the riding, winning both contests much to their dismay.

At this juncture, I should explain who "they" is. "They" is the establishment, the political aristocracy, as well as the mainstream news media and its commentators, which often work in concert to keep things on an even keel according to their view of the world.

They’re now suggesting that a Hillier win would be a disaster for the PCs because most Ontario voters live in urban centres and the Man from Lanark’s "hard-right rural philosophy" would have little resonance with them.

Both of these ruling groups can’t abide the gall of someone like Hillier who rocketed from the backwoods of Eastern Ontario where he started out advocating the right of private property owners to shoot nuisance deer without a permit, into a Conservative seat in Queen’s Park in only a few short years without paying the usual dues.

And now has the gonads to want to take over the party? What happened to appropriate homage being paid to the political establishment and to the mainstream media? Just who does he think he is?

With John Tory finally crashing and burning in the PC leadership after sputtering along in the role for five years, party members are set to pick a new saviour through riding votes June 21 and 25, culminating in a convention in Markham June 27. Candidates have until April 17 to officially enter the race and until May 14 to sign up member/supporters.

After teasing the crowd in Chesterville at the March 28 annual Easter breakfast put on by the Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry PC riding association, Hillier made it official March 30, becoming the first candidate in the race and likely the only one from Eastern Ontario after Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabusky wisely decided to give it a pass.

His declared competition so far is Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees, Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, and Christine Elliott, MPP for Whitby-Oshawa. Both Hudak and Elliott were in Chesterville with Hillier, campaigning to beat the band.

As is his way, Hillier made the jump with both barrels blazing, not even sparing his own party which he said is in trouble, along with the province and its people.

"Tough times call for a smart leader," he said, "one who knows how to overcome adversity and rise to the challenges rather than making excuses and pointing fingers. I have the courage to offer a truly conservative vision."

He may have been referring to the tough times currently being experienced by his party, abandoned in droves under the lackluster John Tory who should never have emerged from the backroom where he toiled for years as a campaign organizer.

The PCs now need a leader with a difference, the antithesis of bland, something that sets him or her apart from the middle-of-the-road brand offered by the other Ontario parties. If he’s anything, Hillier is different. He sure ain’t bland.

Come general election time, voters would have no trouble distinguishing him and his policies from the rest of the pack. He has created controversy right from the get-go, proposing to abolish the Ontario Human Rights Commission and turn its deliberations over to "real judges", eliminate mandatory memberships in professional organizations and unions, and redesign the "nanny state of dependency" created by governments and their "faceless bureaucrats".

In case anybody missed the point that he’s different than the others, he said he might reconsider the province’s French language services policy applicable in areas where francophones constitute a minimum 10 per cent of the population.

No, the Hillier approach won’t appeal to everyone... but it certainly injects a "truly conservative vision" into the race.