LINDSAY, ONT. – John Tory pressed the reset button on his rocky leadership of the Progressive Conservatives by announcing today he'd finally cleared a path to return to the Ontario legislature, hoping to quell critics who insist it's already game over.
Progressive Conservative Laurie Scott will resign her central Ontario seat and take on the job of getting the Opposition ready for the next election, Tory said in Lindsay, about 130 kilometres east of Toronto.
The embattled Conservative leader travelled to Scott's riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock – almost 15 months to the day his party suffered one of its worst electoral defeats – to announce she had agreed to step aside so he could run in a byelection.
Tory vowed to do a better job as leader of the party, acknowledging that his "impatience" to get things done may have clouded his judgment at times.
"I think I'm a stronger leader and wiser leader today than I was two years ago," he said.
It's become a common refrain for Tory, whose political missteps during the 2007 provincial election fuelled an open rebellion within his party. His critics have pointed to his long drawn-out seat search as proof that Tory is too weak and indecisive to lead the party to victory against the reigning Liberals.
His decision to run in Scott's riding should "eliminate" that concern, said Tory, who acknowledged that the last few months have been difficult for him personally.
"I am determined in my view that my experience, that my hard work, that my honest and straightforward approach is, in the end, going to be found to be what the people feel they need to get this province back on top economically," he said.
One veteran party member, who asked to remain anonymous, said he thinks "some people will take a wait-and-see view and hope that Tory can turn it around now."
"But I don't think it's going to change a thing," he added.
Tory said Scott offered to step down in the fall, but he didn't accept until after it became clear Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn't inadvertantly free up a seat in the legislature by giving any of Tory's 25 caucus members a Senate seat.
Tory refused to say whether he would stay on or resign as leader of the party if he failed to win the byelection, which has not yet been called.
Scott was also tight-lipped on whether she intended to return as a Conservative candidate in the 2011 provincial election, or leave the seat vacant for Tory.
She was first elected in 2003 and easily won re-election in 2007 in the riding that the Conservatives have held since 1994.
In exchange for giving up her seat, Scott will take on the ``enormous responsibility" of election readiness chair for the party, Tory said.
The NDP were quick to open fire, accusing Tory of pushing one of only seven women in his caucus to quit.
"Leaders are supposed to attract women into politics, not force them out," said New Democrat Andrea Horwath.
Tory struggled for more than a year to find a riding to contest since losing his ill-fated bid for a Toronto seat in the 2007 election, where he went head-to-head against Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
His controversial campaign promise to extend public funding to religious schools – and refusal to back off the proposal until the last minute – poisoned the Tories' chances of defeating the Liberals, leading them to one of their worst showings ever.
Despite calls to resign and a dismal 66.9 per cent approval rating in a leadership vote last February, Tory vowed to stay and learn from his mistakes.
His efforts to unite the party, including the launch of a grassroots policy project, were overshadowed by his inability to find a seat and failed to stamp out lingering resentment within party ranks.
Longtime Conservative Bill Murdoch was kicked out of caucus in the fall for suggesting Tory find another job. And a group of disgruntled party members are putting forward a proposal at the party's convention next month that some say is designed to ``humiliate" Tory. It puts a firm deadline on the amount of time a leader can take to find a seat.
Tory's next big battle will likely be fought in Scott's riding, where he'll have to convince voters – and his party – to give him another chance.
Lindsay resident Charlie Orr, 66, said he resents that taxpayers will have to foot the hefty bill – up to $500,000 – for a byelection just so Tory can find a seat.
"In this economic situation, it isn't right at all," said Orr, a retired mechanic who worked for the local school board.
"We're spending half-a-million dollars that we shouldn't be spending, and we shouldn't even be having a byelection because this is all nonsense."
Premier Dalton McGuinty has six months to call a byelection, but has indicated in the past he would move quickly to give Tory a chance to run for a seat.