The Ontario PC Party is up in arms now that one of their own, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees, has put his name forward for the speakers chair. Dalton is just one-seat shy of a majority government, and that means neither opposition parties could afford to lose one of their own to become the legislatures moderator. Andrea Horwath and Tim Hudak have been touting their opposition horns the past couple of weeks, as they should, and making demands on Dalton for great consultation in the upcoming minority parliament. With larger numbers in the legislature, I’m sure both the PC’s and the NDP were eager to get back to work. Then Frank steps in… and poo-poo’s their party. Am I surprised that Frank made such a move? Not really.
When I started getting involved in politics, Frank Klees was my MPP in the now defunct riding of Oak Ridges. As a former volunteer for the failed campaigns of Liberals Vito Spatafora and Helena Jaczek in 1999 and 2003 respectively, we despised Klees with a passion. He was cocky, he was vain, and those of us in the Ontario Liberal Party Oak Ridges riding would have loved nothing more than to see this man lose. But, to give Frank Klees some credit, he was a man who had political ambition. As a case in point, he once flirted with the idea of running for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance and ran and failed twice in running for the Ontario PC Party leadership.
Knowing Frank, I knew he could not bare to sit through 4 more years in opposition, especially under the bumbling leadership of Tim Hudak. What does he have to lose? The lost of “buddy status” in the Tory caucus- who cares? As this will most likely be his last term at Queen’s Park anyways. A speaker’s salary and status isn’t shabby… nor is the amount of media coverage. Maybe he’s inching to jump ship to the federal Tories in 4 years time. Though knowing Harper, he wouldn’t be pleased with having such a rogue, for a lack of better words, on his team.
