Ontario PCs try to grab political centre, build trust in Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown and his Ontario PCs are making clear that they are in it to win it, offering a platform jam-packed with promises designed to appeal to that crucial swath of voters who aren't bound to a political ideology.

As Kathleen Wynne's Ontario Liberal Party unabashedly triesto woo the left, the Progressive Conservatives are seeing theirchance to grab hold of the centre.

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The big question is whether those middle-of-the-road voters will trust Brown to be a moderate if he wins power. After all, he spent nine years on Stephen Harper's backbenches and he's leading the party that brought Ontario the Common Sense Revolution under Mike Harris.

"For a lot of people, their vote is driven by who can they trust," said NelsonWiseman, political science professor at the University of Toronto, in an interview Monday.

To try to win that trust, Brown and the PCs released theirfull platform on the weekend, more than six months ahead of voting day. It's in a slickly-designed glossymagazine entitled "People's Guarantee." Theguarantee part: if a PC government fails to bring in its five key promises, Brown will not run again.

Two of the five key pledges are red-meat pocketbook promises: a 22.5 per cent tax cut for the middle class and a further 12 per cent reduction in the average hydro bill.

Two others are absolutelycrucial to softening the PC party's image as slashers-and-burners: refunding up to 75 per cent of families' daycare costs, and committingto spend anextra $1.9 billion on mental health over the next decade.

The PCs' child-care refundwould give:

• $6,750 to a single parent earning $35,000 per year with a child under six
• $5,700 to a couple earning $100,000 with two school-age children

Longtime Liberal strategist Warren Kinselladescribes the child-care rebate and mental health funding moves as both capital-L and small-Lliberal.

"This ain't the PC party of Harris no more it's the PC party of (BIll) Davis," writes Kinsella on his blog.

Notably, Brown is not vowing to dismantle several of theWynne government's key recent initiatives, including free prescription drugs for children and young adults, grants that cover the costs of tuition for lower-income families, or expanded rent control.

That suggests the PCs have learned lessons from previous election losses in which their controversial promises to cut 100,000 public sector jobs orfund religious schools led to defeat.

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Wiseman describes the platform as a fulsome but cautious agenda with nothing radicalin it."TheConservativeswant to make sure this election is not about them, but is about the Liberals and KathleenWynne," he said.

The Liberals are already trying to persuade voters that Brown can't actually provide more services while reducingtaxes.

There are $12 billion in spending cuts in the PCplatform, said Deputy Premier Deb Matthews.

"They don't talk at all about where thosecutsare going to be made, but we know they will come from health care and theywillcome fromeducation, because those are the biggest parts of the budget."Matthews told reporters Monday at Queen's Park.

The platform shows "savings" of $6.1 billion over its four-year budget forecast through a "value-for-money audit" of government programs, plus $6.3 billion in reduced revenue from eliminating the Liberals' cap-and-trade program, which requires businesses to pay for their carbon emissions.

But even Matthews, who is co-chair of the Ontario Liberal re-election campaign,grudgingly admits the PC platform hits a populist tone.

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"They've done some good focus-group testing, I think they're raising some issues that are politically advantageous," Matthews said. "They did a good job on the marketing side. I think they did not so good a job on coming clean with the people of Ontario."

Kinsella calls the magazine-style cover of theplatform brilliant.

"The genius of the PC platform is that they actually printed [their key promises]right on thecover," writesKinsella. "It ensures the stuff they want you to remember will be remembered."