Alternative? Not for many.

A group of disgruntled conservatives plans to start a new party. Their ultimate goal is to provide a national alternative to the federal Conservative party. But a federal election this fall seems unlikely and contesting the upcoming by-elections is apparently too lowbrow for the group, so they decided to organize on a provincial level first, establishing the Ontario Alternative Party which will contest the provincial election in October. Anthony Silvestro, the leader of a new party, believes it would become an alternative to both federal and provincial Tories.

Anthony Silvestro and his supporters were apparently unaware (or unwilling to notice) that Ontario already has an alternative to its PC party. Yes, I am talking about the Family Coalition Party. So far that's the only provincial party that proposes actual reforms to provincial healthcare and education systems, rather than just suggesting throwing in more cash or downsizing schools and hospitals. It's family-friendly platform provides for broad-based tax cuts by eliminating wasteful spending, not by cutting back on essential services. So far the FCP is the only alternative for both Social and Fiscal Conservatives in Ontario.

But the founders of Ontario Alternative decided to act alone. Their platform calls for:

smaller government, across-the-board tax cuts, an end to "enforced" bilingualism and multiculturalism, and allowing municipalities to de-amalgamate.

That alone is inconsistent. If Anthony Silvestro wants smaller government - why would he de-amalgamate the municipalities? Wouldn't that only increase the number of city councilors, let alone bringing back the "Metro" or "Regional" councils - as they used to be before the amalgamation?

When it comes to social issues, Anthony Silvestro makes it clear:

"We are not going to get bogged down in social issues," Mr. Silvestro said, adding he does not want the new party to become a magnet for single-issue groups and voters.

Mr Silvestro opposes official bilingualism but apparently he's ok with publicly funded abortions on demand. As it turns out Ontario Alternative conservatism is nothing but the good old "PCPC" (politically correct poor choice) ideology which only remotely resembles fiscal conservatism.

We've seen that with Mike Harris whose government was so progressive that at the end of its 8-year rule the province was lacking some 300,000 kids with at least a quarter of a billion dollars (which would have come in quite handy to the cash-strapped hospitals) spent to have them aborted. Some may argue it was still better than the Liberals that delisted services, added monthly premiums for healthcare and extended public funding to gender change operations, but I doubt it would make any difference to way over a million of Ontario children that were denied the right to life since abortion was legalized. Nor would it matter for the taxpayer who still has to pay for abortions on demand from his own pocket.

So, if FisCons could hardly distinguish the "alternative" platform from the Ontario PCs and SoCons need not apply - who is the alternative for? Most likely - for the local PC party supporters that personally oppose John Tory. That may be enough to split the vote in a few ridings, but definitely not enough to win seats for themselves.

On the other hand, splitting the vote may not be that bad after all. With votes in some ridings being split five ways (between the Liberal, PC, NDP, Green and FCP candidates), it may actually give a fair chance to small parties (including the FCP) to win seats. Hopefully, none of the three major parties wins majority this fall, so Ontario could have another election in 2009, this time using Proportional Representation.