More than 1,000 men, women and youth from across Ontario attended the very successful PC Party annual policy convention in Niagara Falls this past weekend. The PCs take a very grassroots approach to these events, where members from Kenora to Ottawa to Smithville play a major role in developing PC policies for the next campaign.

Annual policy conventions provide the opportunity for party members to get together and share ideas, discuss and vote on the issues, and to give advice to sitting MPPs and party leaders.

In less than a month, the Ontario PCs, Liberals and New Democrats will have all held policy conventions in Niagara and Hamilton – both great locations for such events – which has certainly resulted in quite a few tourism dollars getting spread around the community.

At the PC convention, members focused on key issues in policy discussions on a variety of subjects, such as the economy and health care, and voted on policy ideas to help bring jobs to our province and doctors to underserviced areas. At the economy session in which I hosted, members were given their say on topics such as harmonized sales tax, property assessment reform and when, if at all, it is acceptable for a government to run a deficit.

The economy session also featured guest speakers Stanley Hartt (former Chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Canada), Finn Poshmann (Vice-President of Research at the C.D. Howe Institute) and Dennis Desrosiers (Canada’s leading automotive sector analyst) who provided an excellent overview of how Ontario is being affected by the current economic crisis and took questions from PC members.

Their advice will be very helpful in the year ahead as we bring forward recommendations to the McGuinty government in the Legislature on the economy and as the Ontario PCs build toward the future and 2011.

The Liberal convention was also recently held in Niagara Falls in February. I attended the Premier’s keynote speech and spoke to the media on behalf of the Official Opposition. It is a long standing courtesy for representatives of other parties to attend as observers.

The NDP convention to be held in two weeks in Hamilton promises to be particularly interesting this year, as delegates will elect a new party leader – for the first time in 13 years – to replace retiring leader Howard Hampton. I will also be attending this convention as an observer to see if Hamilton’s own Andrea Horwath can capitalize on the home ice advantage and become the next leader of the NDP.

I would like to encourage anyone with an abiding interest in politics and policy formation to get involved in their party’s next convention. I’m confident you will find the experience rewarding.