OTTAWA - Bleary-eyed Progressive Conservative delegates emerged from a weekend of policy talk, election preparations and hospitality suites confident that new leader Tim Hudak can do what Ernie Eves and John Tory could not -- defeat Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty.
However, some party members seemed concerned that Hudak's refusal to commit to scrapping the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax is a somewhat confusing message when he is so opposed to the HST.
"When people find out that I'm a PC, customers or friends, their first question is: Tim Hudak and the PCs say they're against this but they won't repeal it," asked one delegate who didn't give his name but identified himself as a small business owner. "Can you expand a little bit more on what we can do to help in response to those questions we're getting hammered with day in and day out?"
Hudak's explanation that Premier Dalton McGuinty's HST deal with Ottawa includes a $4.3 billion dollar "poison pill" penalty clause didn't stop the questions about the party's position on the HST.
The new leader, who took over last July, delivered what convention co-chair Lisa MacLeod described as the "speech of Tim Hudak's life" during Saturday's keynote address, winning several standing ovations from the party faithful.
Hudak also looked very comfortable Sunday during a Tory version of the television show 'Inside the Actor's Studio' hosted by Senator Mike Duffy, laughing and joking with the audience and taking questions directly from the floor.
Even the music from young alternative rock bands like The Arcade Fire demonstrated the Tories were reaching out to younger voters.
"It's time for a new generation of leadership to restore Ontario's promise, and I was thrilled to see a great mix of people here from party veterans, a lot more young people as well," said Hudak. "I set out three goals for our conventions: to make them more family friendly, more fun and more modern."
Former premier Mike Harris, Hudak's political mentor -- who is still viewed as a hero by party members -- was a much more visible presence at the meeting than he has been in years, adding to the feeling the party is returning to its winning ways.
Both Hudak and Harris used the results of two provincial byelections held on the eve of the convention to fire up the delegates, even though the Tories lost Ottawa West-Nepean to high profile Liberal Bob Chiraelli, a former MPP and mayor of Ottawa, in a tight race.
"The results of those byelections say to me, and reconfirm how proud I am of the job that our leader and our caucus are doing at Queen's Park and around the province," Harris said to loud cheers.
"I believe that the Ontario PC party is very, very well positioned to win and win big in 2011."
Given Chiraelli's history and name recognition, the Conservatives said they were thrilled at closing the gap in the suburban Ottawa riding from 19 percentage points in the 2007 election to four points.
Hudak dismissed criticism that unlike the federal Conservatives, the Ontario Tories are still mostly white people, which doesn't represent the multi-cultural face of the province.
"I think you're seeing at PC party events that we're more and more the face of Ontario," countered Hudak. "We have work to do still, and that's why I travel consistently across the province...to reach out."
Hudak committed to campaigning for the 2011 election on lower taxes, and said winning seats in northern Ontario would be a key goal. He also promised a Progressive Conservative government would set up a system to hold elections for Ontario Senators.
Hudak's former leadership rival Frank Klees summed up the positive mood coming out of the meeting, saying he hadn't seen that kind of energy at a PC convention since 1994, the year before Harris was elected under the Common Sense Revolution banner.
