A good part of politics happens to be timing,” Hudak said during a phone interview, reflecting on his 80-day campaign to become leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party.

The 41-year-old politician has spent most of his adult life in public office. He was first elected in 1995 at the age of 27. Now, he’s the front-runner in the four-person race to replace John Tory, who resigned as party leader in March after failing to win a byelection in Lindsay. Tory ran there because he lost his own downtown Toronto seat in the 2007 general election.

A leadership campaign is a chance to put out where you, as a candidate, want to take the party and to run on your record as an MPP,” Hudak said.

Today, on the second day of the PC Leadership Convention, the taped-shut boxes will be opened in the Hilton Suites in Markham, where the ballots will be tallied and one of the four leadership candidates will begin preparing the PC Party for the 2011 election.

Transporting the ballot boxes is new in this election, said PC Party president Ken Zeise.

“Last time, trying to maintain communication with 107 ridings was difficult,” Mr. Zeise said.

Party members voted either on Thursday or this past Sunday, using a preferential ballot where they were asked to rank their top three candidates in order. A candidate needs more than 50% to win. If no candidate wins on first-place ballots, the candidate with the fewest first-place ballots will be dropped, and counters will move to second-choice selections and then to the third choice, if needed.

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The results of the leadership voting which took place earlier this week, will be announced riding-by-riding tomorrow, beginning at 10 a.m.

A tribute to outgoing leader John Tory will happen during lunch tomorrow.

Second ballot results will begin to be rolled out at 2 p.m.

Subsequent ballots will be released should they be required, over the course of Saturday afternoon.

At the end of the day, our party will emerge with a new leader – united and focused on the only thing that matters: presenting a reasoned, tested, principled Progressive Conservative vision for an entirely new course for Ontario. Dalton McGuinty’s days as Premier are numbered. Each of the four candidates have proven that they have the ideas, the energy and the principled determination to defeat McGuinty & Co. in 2011.

The clock starts now.

I would like to congratulate everyone who took the time to participate and vote in the Ontario PC Leadership Race. I believe the campaigns from Frank Klees, Tim Hudak, Randy Hillier and Christine Elliott all played important roles in putting forward new ideas, recruiting new party members and putting us in a stronger position to defeat Dalton McGuinty in 2011. Although the leadership race was very short, I acknowledge that many people have put a lot of time into this leadership contest since John Tory was unfortunately defeated in the recent by-election in the riding of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock on March 5.

I have nothing but deep respect for all of the candidates who put their name forward in this process. I also have nothing but respect for the members who worked so hard to promote their preferred candidates.

The last few months of competition among Conservatives has been fun but the real work begins now. I think the party is much stronger because of this race but we must all work together to get our membership and support levels up to where they were a decade ago.

This weekend the results will be revealed at the convention in Markham. I think it is important as party members that we all go to the convention prepared to rally behind whoever is chosen by the grassroots who cast their votes on June 21 and June 25. On a personal level, I will be proud to support whoever wins and have nothing but respect for the four individuals who put their name forward in this contest.

I am also looking forward to the John Tory tribute where we can thank John for his efforts leading our party and hopefully convince him to run for mayor of Toronto against David Miller where his talents are most needed right now.

Recent polls show that after this weekend we still have a lot of work ahead of us as Progressive Conservatives. Dalton McGuinty is going to be a tough opponent in 2011 and it is important that we do not lose any time in preparing for the next election by failing to unite following this leadership race. The talents from all campaigns are going to be required to change government in 2011 and bring Ontario back to have status and prosperity.

Saturday of course we will all go into the convention rooting for our candidate of choice. Once the announcement is made, I encourage everyone to demonstrate unity and put their unconditional support behind whoever is elected. After Saturday, I am looking forward to working with my PC colleagues and friends on the real election that matters. We cannot afford another term of Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government. In order to bring change, we need all hands on deck. I look forward to connecting with members from all the leadership camps this weekend.

See you all in Markham!

We are hours from closing the polls and days from knowing who will lead our party in the Legislature and into the 2011 election. As I see it, the stakes could not be higher for the PC Party of Ontario.

I am encouraged by the quality of the four leadership candidates and by the high level of interest and enthusiasm they generated throughout the race. Their campaigns were short but intense; their debate thought-provoking.

Shrewd and creative use of “new media” have been hallmarks of this campaign. Twitter and Facebook as well as more traditional Web pages were utilized extensively. No longer did party members have to depend on the mainstream media to provide knowledge about the candidates. Access to the candidates was open to all with an e-mail account or a web browser. Internet-savvy members could converse directly with fellow supporters and debate the issues with adversaries.

This bodes well for when next we take on Mr. McGuinty. Here’s to victory in 2011!