HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1971-02-18, Page 4PAGE FOUR
Did They Pick The Right Man??
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1971
The Progressive Conservative Association of
Ontario have picked a new leader, and the future
premier of the province. We wonder though, if in
picking William G. Davis for the job, they picked
the right man as far as the general public is concern-
ed. There is no doubt he was the choice of the
"establishment, " but it seemed his opponent, Allan
Lawrence, was more popular with the ordinary Joe
on the street.
From the start of the voting in Toronto on Friday
it was quite clear that the "old order" Tories wanted
their man, Davis, to emerge as the next leader.
This was quite evident from the number of cabinet
ministers, members of parliament and party officials
who were backing him. But the ordinary man from
the hustings seemed to lean to Mr. Lawrence, who
has been considered as sort of a maverick in the
party, at times.
Maybe the ordinary people wanted a change in
the type of man who was being chosen as head of
the province, and as the balloting continued it be-
came more evident that Lawrence was gaining in
popularity. Even in the last ballot when the third
man in the finals, Darcy KcKeough, threw his sup-
port behind Mr. Davis, less than half of his follow-
ers went with him into the education minister's
camp. This surely was an indication that many
strong Tories were ready for a change in their leader,
even though the "establishment" wanted to go along
with a member of the "old guard."
As far as we are personally concerned, Mr.
Davis is a fine and intelligent man, and will no
doubt make an ideal premier for Ontario, but the
more people we talk to; the more we are convinced
the general public would have liked a change in
the type of leader they were choosing. No doubt
many people look back to the drastic increases in
the cost of education under Mr. Davis, and were
pleased when Mr. Lawrence carne out in opposition
to the high costs of education.
We were not happy with the decision of Darcy
McKeough to swing his support behind Davis in the
final vote, especially when all the other candidates
remained strictly neutral after they were eliminated.
If he had also remained neutral, Mr. Lawrence
might have quite easily emerged as the victor.
However, this is all in the game of politics.
If the television audience, in which we were
included, had been given the opportunity to vote
on the leader, there is no doubt that Mr. Lawrence
would easily have won on the second or third ballot.
His pleasing personality and appealing smile cert-
ainly won many friends for him.
We sometimes wonder at the present system
used by all political parties in choosing a new leader.
It is quite a thing to allow a chosen number of del-
egates to pick the man who will be the prime min-
ister of an entire province, or the entire Dominion
of Canada. But this is the system which has been
used by all parties over the years, and until some-
one comes up with a better alternative, it will
probably remain the same.
A big question which arises in the minds of
many people now that the new leader has been
picked is "what will happen to Allan Lawrence."
There is no doubt that Mr. Davis will have to fit
him into an important position in his cabinet, fol-
lowing the results of his popularity. An ideal post
for Mr. Lawrence would be Minister of Education,
which M. Davis will have to abandon. now that he
is to be prernier. Since Mr, Lawrence was critical
of the education costs in Ontario, no doubt has
some ideas of his own in cutting down expenses and
would be showing people in Ontario that he respects
the popularity of Allan Lawrence, and is willing to
adopt some of his ideas. Such a move would un-
doubtedly meet with great approval from the ordin-
ary folks in Ontario.
ZURICH Citizens NEWS
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