Last week, I jokingly speculated that Ernie Eves would continue his string of empty statements by spouting off on immigration, a federal matter. As it turns out, I wasn’t far from the truth, which leads me to wonder: Is Ernie Eves running for the office of Premier of Ontario or that of Prime Minister of Canada?

“Now, Dalton McGuinty and his provincial Liberal Party are, of course, good friends of their federal cousins in Ottawa — the same people who have saddled Ontario with a broken immigration system that shuts the door on literally tens of thousands of skilled workers, yet seemingly welcomes criminals into our community,” Mr. Eves said.

First off, where is Eves getting these figures? Secondly, what is he implying? That Canada turns away thousands of skilled workers in favour of thousands of criminals? That the Liberal governments are somehow scheming to bring proven criminals into the province instead of skilled workers? I was going to write a lengthy rant, but Globe And Mail columnist Murray Campbell does a much better job of it than I would have done.

Who are the provincial Conservatives to make immigration an election issue? If they felt so strongly about immigration policy, why didn’t they attempt to negotiate a new deal during the eight years they’ve been in power? The answer, of course, is because they never truly cared enough to bring it up. They only raise the issue during the election campaign in order to use it as a tool to scare would-be Liberal voters. This is in line with the smear fest which has been part of the Tory platform since day one. The mud-slinging continues unabated even though it runs counter to Eves’ policies and promises when he ran for the Tory leadership:

It was Flaherty, currently enterprise minister, who early last year announced he would ban teacher strikes if he won the Tory leadership and, subsequently, the premier’s office.

“When we’re throwing out these neat solutions scratched on the back of an envelope, we might want to think about what the cost is and if we really want to go there,” responded Eves, who had previously denounced a strike ban as “undemocratic.”

And it was Flaherty who was roundly criticized when he proposed a “scoop law” to get the homeless off the streets and pushed for a tax credit for private schools – two policies now at the forefront of the Tory re-election platform.

Thankfully, this massive shift to the far right is scaring away traditional Tory supporters:

I’ve been a lifelong conservative supporter, except for one occasion when I voted (to my eternal chagrin) Reform. But can anybody help wonder what is going on with the party these days? As they swing farther to the right on issues like same sex marriage, and spin half-truths about budgets into bigger and bigger lies about their opposition, it’s hard not to look at the Liberals and think that maybe it’s time for a change.

Every time Ernie Eves opens his mouth to spew forth his rancor and lies, I hope for a devastating Conservative defeat at the polls this coming October. Here’s hoping that we won’t have to wake up on October 3rd to four more years of Ernie Eves and his ilk.