From Wikipedia: Tom Long (politician)
Tom Long (born
1958) is a
Canadian political strategist. Long was president of the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in the late 1980s. He played a key role in writing and implementing party leader
Mike Harris' "Common Sense Revolution", and helping the Tories win the
1995 Ontario election that brought them to power.
In 2000, Long ran for the
leadership of the federal
Canadian Alliance party in an attempt to make the new party more attractive to
Ontario voters, and to bring members of the federal
Progressive Conservative Party into the CA. He came in third in a campaign that was stung by allegations of fraudulent registration of non-existent members -- allegedly including a number of deceased individuals and a few
dogs -- in
Quebec. After being dropped from the first ballot, he supported
Preston Manning on the second; after Manning's defeat by
Stockwell Day, Long returned to behind-the-scenes activism.
After the CA and PC parties merged in 2004 to form the
Conservative Party of Canada, Long supported former Ontario PC cabinet minister
Tony Clement for the
leadership of the new party.
A native of the border city of
Sarnia, Ontario, Long holds dual American-Canadian citizenship, a fact which, in the context of his
neoconservative political positions, inspired some controversy during his Canadian Alliance leadership campaign.
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