The sudden appearance of Caroline Mulroney in the Ontario political firmament is just the latest surprise in the fast-changing politics of Canada's largest and wealthiest province. Her candidacy opens the intriguing prospect that Brian Mulroney's daughter might take over running Ontario while Pierre Trudeau's son continues to govern Canada.
Ms. Mulroney, a 43-year-old commercial lawyer and investment banker, had already tested the political waters by seeking and winning the Progressive Conservative nomination to run for the York-Simcoe seat in the Ontario legislature in this year's June 7 provincial election. Then all of a sudden last week, Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown announced he was quitting the leadership after being accused - falsely, he maintains - of sexual impropriety.
No sooner had the party found itself an interim leader than party president Rick Dykstra also resigned, saying he, too, was quitting in the face of unproven sexual impropriety charges. By then, however, the party had launched a snap leadership race to have a standard-bearer in place for the imminent election campaign.
Doug Ford gave up asking to be mayor of Toronto and entered the Tory leadership race. He will bring with him many of the fans who admired his late brother, the variously addicted Toronto mayor Rob Ford. He may also appeal to those Tories who can't stand the thought of a Liberal lesbian as leader of Ontario, in the person of Premier Kathleen Wynne, whose terrible polling numbers seem to foreshadow electoral defeat.
Since the men who have been running the PC party keep running into trouble, it seems to some Ontario Conservatives like a good idea to choose a woman as leader. Since Ms. Wynne runs the Liberal government and Andrea Horvath runs the provincial New Democratic party, another male leader might cast the Tories uncomfortably in the role of the familiar old boys' network when the public mood seems eager for someone new.
In these circumstances, Caroline Mulroney could conceivably become Ontario PC leader in March and premier of Ontario in June.
Like Justin Trudeau, she grew up at 24 Sussex Drive while her father was manoeuvring through the constitutional struggles of the last century. Her father, Brian Mulroney, governed from 1984 to 1993 following Justin's father, who governed from 1968 to 1984 (with a year off for the Joe Clark interregnum). Both their fathers rode to power on waves of high hopes and left office just a little ahead of the lynch mob.
Both of these children of power therefore know how the wheel turns, how last year's saviour can become this year's pariah. They have watched the mechanics of Canadian politics at close range, through the eyes of their fathers.
Justin Trudeau has shown that a famous name is a place to start, but the child of a famous father has to earn respect for some original thought and some individual abilities - for what comes after the surname. He has also shown that a famous name is in part a liability. Plenty of Canadians cannot forgive Justin Trudeau for things they think his father did. Plenty of Ontarians will hold Caroline Mulroney answerable for the real or imagined misdeeds of Brian Mulroney.
Caroline Mulroney has just seven weeks to differentiate herself from her famous father and to convince Ontario Tories that, though she has never yet been elected to any public office, she should begin her political career as their leader.
-- Winnipeg Free Press
