PCs reveal ideas that will form backbone of election platform

The Progressive Conservatives have revealed more than 100 policy ideas that will form the backbone of their campaign platform in next year's Ontario election.

The proposals are laid out in detail on the party's website. Those that get approved by the party's 130,000 members (through an online vote early next month) will become official PC policy heading into the election in June.

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The PCs are drawing up their campaign platform this way to try to avoid a repeat of their 2014 election defeat, which many in the party blameon a single, controversial campaign promiseby then-leader Tim Hudak:cutting 100,000 public sector jobs.

Overall, the 139 new ideas generated by the party grassroots under PC leader Patrick Brown steer clear of controversy. Many are vague statements that no one could disagree with, for instance:

• "PC Party policy is to help make life more affordable for families with young children."
• "PC Party policy is to guarantee faster service by all Ministries and agencies."
• "PC Party policy is to ensure better care for Dementia patients."

Yet in steeringclear of controversy, the PCs run the risk of missing out on bold ideas that will capture the imagination of voters.

Those bold ideas will come, insists KevinGaudet, co-chairman of next month's PC convention, where the results of the policy votingwill be revealed.

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"This is not the platform," said Gaudet in an interview Thursday with CBC News.

"The content for [the platform]will be driven by whatever's passed at the convention," Gaudet said. "If something is rejected, it will not be in the platform."

Gaudet argues the proposals include enoughspecific ideas to help shape the party's platform, while the broader ideas leave leeway for filling in details as the campaign nears. He points to resolutions ontax relief, eliminating cap and trade, and improving mathin schools as examples of more concrete proposals.

Despite the lengthy list of 139 ideas, plenty of holes remain. The resolutions take no stand on four of the most significant policies introduced by Kathleen Wynne's Liberal governmentin the past year:the $15 minimum wage,rent control, free prescription drugs for people under 25, and OSAP grants that cover tuition for students from lower-income families.

The words "women," "doctors," "nurses," "French," and "marijuana" don't appear anywhere in the 6,000-plus words of text.

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The word "teachers" appears n one resolution: "PC Party policy is to empower teachers and give them the tools, training, and flexibility they need to use their professional judgment to promote student achievement and support student needs."

"There's a lot that's not there, and what is there just completelylacks substance," said Deputy Premier Deb Matthews in an interview Thursday with CBCNews."It's just motherhood and apple pie, There's nothing specific about how [Brown]is going to do anything that he says that they want to do."

The PC policy launch"was supposed to be when we'd find out who [Brown]was and what he stood for and what they're going to run on in the next election," said Matthews. "We don't know anything more about who is he or what he stands for than we did before."

CBC News requested an interview with Brown on Thursday but his staff said he was travelling in a remote part of northern Ontario and was not reachable.

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