Over the last week, I have heard from many of you – the grassroots.

Half of you have said that you want to move forward and support our party and John Tory as our leader since he has committed to making numerous changes. Half of you have said that you will not support the party until John Tory steps down.

The main objective of our campaign was to ensure that the Leadership Review vote reflected the will of the membership at large. We wanted to send a clear message to John Tory that we were not a small minority.

John Tory has acknowledged us. He has made commitments to drastically overhaul the entire operation. He has travelled the province, listened to many concerns and now has begun to make many significant changes.

Some people are still upset that we organized the YES campaign. I can’t blame anyone for being loyal to the Leader but the Leadership Review process was constitutionally mandated.

The Leadership Review vote has now come and gone. 66.87% did not support a Leadership Election. The Caucus supports the continued leadership of John Tory. This is enough for most people to give John Tory a second chance, including myself.

For those who may still have reservations, I believe that there are only 3 options to consider:

1. Quit the party and perhaps join another party.

2. Fight a civil war within the party until John Tory quits or loses the next election.

3. If John Tory is serious about making changes, then we get behind him and defeat the Liberals in 2011.

I am not going to quit the party to join another party – that is not an option for me.

I have no energy to fight people within the party - that will ensure another liberal victory.

I will support the party and John Tory as long as his commitments are kept.

John Tory cannot ignore the result – a significant portion of the party wanted a Leadership Election. We cannot ignore the result – a significant portion of the party wants him to stay on and he has already shown us that he is serious about making many changes.

I believe that this Leadership Review process could actually be turned into a positive for all sides. Time will tell.


This will be the last post here. I look forward to working with all of you in the future.



Nick Kouvalis

In the short term both Paul and I will be taking some time off. We began this campaign at the end of November 2007. We worked pretty much every hour of every day on the campaign. For now we are going to take a few steps back and re-focus on our own lives.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with the YES campaign. Without your support and involvement we would never have achieved what we did. It was an honour and a pleasure to work with everyone.

Congratulations to the newly elected executive, especially Robert Elliott. Although he was a declared YES supporter, Robert and his team campaigned with vigour and determination throughout the weekend and obviously bridged a divide in the various camps. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere for the rest of us?

We'd like to encourage everyone to stay active and involved in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Your voice can only be heard if you are engaged and working on the inside.

I know many of you want one question answered:

What do you do with John Tory now? Do we continue to fight to remove him? Do we lay down our arms? Do we take a wait and see approach?

I think we go slow.

Stay tuned.

Nick