TORONTO – The Ontario Provincial Conservative Party took an 8% dive in the polls after the recently concluded leadership contest reminded Ontarians it was still around.
According to the latest Ipsos-Reid survey, coverage of the leadership contest and subsequent convention in Toronto led to a decrease in public opinion, with those surveyed about the outcome of the leadership race using the terms “surprised” and “disappointed” in response to the question “are you aware that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is still a thing?”
“When the party’s already abysmally low public opinion is considered, taking a position of continued existence could really hurt the party’s brand,” said public relations expert Aldon Patterson. “However, the good news is that there is lots of time before the next election for the party to cease to exist.”
A growing number of respondents stated that they would be “all right” with the party’s purge from all human experience following the last election – and may indeed encourage them to consider voting for the PCs again so long as there was no trace of them on the ballot or in living memory.
Patterson conceded, however, that the chance of the party being able to pull this off was pretty unlikely.
“In order for these measures to work, newly-elected leader Patrick Brown would have to first stop reminding voters that he is a leader of a political party called the Progressive Conservatives, or that he even is. He would also have to avoid advocating policies like removing sex education from schools, or disputing gay rights. From what we know of him he would continue to advocate for these things, even as a completely unhappened human excised from all history and experience, who was in charge of an entity entirely removed from time, space, or human cognition.”
“There is hope, though,” added Patterson. “The Green Party has so far been able to pull off not existing with some success.”
