While the Tories were giddy at electing a new leader, they have some tough tasks ahead.

First, the party cannot haul out the old hot button issues like tax cuts and hope they will touch a nerve.

In 1995, people were overtaxed. They needed cuts. The next election is in 2011 and the issue will be jobs. People with no income don’t care about income tax cuts. They do care about the harmonized sales tax the Liberals are slapping on every necessity of life.

That and the shocking eHealth boondoggle, with millions going to fatcat consultants as ordinary workers were laid off, will also lose the Liberals votes

Those people who voted Tory in vast numbers 15 years ago have matured — aged — if you will. They’re looking at a manufacturing sector that has been destroyed.

They’ve had their life savings decimated by an economic meltdown. People who thought they had a pension suddenly find it has evaporated.

As governments pour billions of dollars into bailouts for private corporations, the little people — the ones who paid for the bailouts — have lost out big time.

As Hudak puts the Champagne bottles out in the recycling today, he’s is going to look at the road ahead — and wonder what he’s got himself into.

He has a little more than two years to get the party organized, to find candidates, to get a platform.

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