Patrick Brown, the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, should be sailing into the provincial general election nine months from now. He is leading in the polls, while his chief opponent, Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, leads a government that's long in the tooth, unpopular and swamped by scandal.
And yet it is Mr. Brown who seems to be on the defensive these days.
It shouldn't be that way. The latest reason: Ms. Wynne's former deputy chief of staff is currently on trial, accused of violating the Ontario Election Act. Pat Sorbara is alleged to have offered a job to a Liberal nomination candidate if he agreed to drop out of the race in favour of the Premier's preferred candidate.
Ms. Wynne testified at that trial this week. Meanwhile, in another courtroom in Ontario, the chief of staff and assistant chief of staff of former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty are about to go on trial on criminal charges related to the destruction of government e-mails pertaining to the cancellation of two gas-fired power plants in 2013.
These should be gifts from heaven for Mr. Brown. But he turned the tables on himself in a recent press scrum when he implied, whether by accident or by design, that the Premier is herself on trial. No, she isn't. The wily Ms. Wynne saw an opening and is threatening to sue him for libel.
And so last week, it was Mr. Brown who was embattled and facing questions from the media, instead of the focus being on the Liberal Party's familiarity with the inside of a courtroom.
There is something reminiscent in this spectacle of a PC Leader turning a natural advantage into a self-inflicted wound. Mr. Brown's predecessor, Tim Hudak, handed the 2014 election to the Liberals when he surprised even his own party with a vow to create one-million jobs and fire 100,000 civil servants at the same time.
Before that, John Tory, now mayor of Toronto but at one time the PC leader, blew the 2007 election thanks to a misguided promise to allow public funding for religious schools.
Mr. Brown should correct his error and move on. His path to government is wide open – as long as he keeps his ammo pointed away from his own feet. But that's never a sure thing with Tory leaders in Ontario.