Advice for Tory

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario is making me nervous.

It seems the Ontario Tories are complaining about some anti-Conservative TV spots that a group known as Working Families Coalition is airing.

The Tories say this group is a front for the Liberals. They further say the group's expenditures should be listed as Liberal campaign expenses.

Now while I worked for the National Citizens Coalition, we were always being accused of being a front for somebody --- the Reform Party, the Conservative Party, the Canadian Alliance, the Liberal Party, the CIA, the Masons, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

So maybe the Working Families Coalition isn't a front for anybody but is a bunch of Working Families -- who are pooling their resources to make a political statement.

OK that's rubbish. You and I both know this "Coalition" is run by big union bosses.

But even big union bosses have a right to express an opinion. The Tories should respect that.

Complaining about third party spending leads to only one thing: election gag laws. And they deny free speech.

What they should do, however, is point out that this "Coalition" is probably funded with forces union dues. And that's wrong!

No one should be forced to subsidize a political cause against his or her will.

So here's my advice to Tory leader John Tory -- promise to change Ontario's labour laws so that union bosses can't use forced dues to finace political causes.

Leave the free speech part alone.