By Sandy - Jack's Newswatch

There is no doubt that John Tory is a very pleasant person and a very successful business man. But, as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, what he needs is strong political instincts — instincts that haven’t been obvious to those of us watching from the bleachers, including many of us who worked on the Ontario campaign in some way.

Yet, he doesn’t seem to see that he has a problem — in fact that he IS the problem. For example, I saw him on Mike Duffy Live on Friday evening, January 25th and he said he deserved to run again because others had lost a campaign and went on to win the next election – such as Mike Harris and Dalton McGuinty.

But, Harris and McGuinty did not lose their own seats. And, Harris was effective as an opposition leader. He relentlessly went after the government of the day — Bob Rae’s NDP — particularly during the social contract debate and the increase to welfare rates. We all remember the term workfare, no matter what we think of Harris.

But, that is the whole point. We remember. Right now, what can anyone remember that John Tory has said since the Ontario election? Think about it. He has so much he could complain about. Recall the noise when he suggested the faith-based school public funding initiative. The McGuinty Liberal campaign team found ways to dump all over him. Yet, he didn’t respond quick enough and hammer them back. Nor did he respond hard enough.

Now, in the past few weeks we have been hearing about the proposed blacks-only school in Toronto. Both Cynapse and I have written about this controversy. As Ontario’s opposition leader, where is John Tory on this issue? It doesn’t matter that it is a municipal school board issue. He should be shouting from the roof tops about Liberal hypocrisy because neither Education Minister Kathleen Wynn nor Premier McGuinty have said anything publicly against the proposal. Yet, they both said faith-based schools would be divisive and about segregation.

Segregation? What about a school that is all about race and the colour of one’s skin — and not only that but blacks with an African heritage? Which countries in Africa would qualify as Africentric? South Africa? Kenya? Liberia? Morocco? Egypt? And, just how is that form of segregated decision-making any less divisive than religion?

In fairness to John Tory, if anyone reading this post has seen or heard anything he has said on the topic, perhaps they can provide a link to that source. Otherwise, his silence just proves he is not up to running again. He and his team were simply not able to match wits with the 2007 Liberal team and, since it’s likely going to be the same or a similar team next time around, Tory should now consider what is best for the party — the Ontario PC Party. Put succinctly, since conservatives do not need or want a Liberal dynasty in Ontario, Tory should do what is right and resign. He is just a very fine man in the wrong job.