Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak, right, applaudes Rob Ford as the mayor takes the stage at his annual Ford Fest barbecue in Etobicoke, Friday, Septembner 2. LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR.

This coming week the campaign for what might be one of the biggest Ontario provincial elections in years gets underway.

Not much more than three weeks ago  John Michael McGrath at Toronto Life was opining on how Ontario Premier Dalton “McGuinty’s personality (or lack thereof) is a huge part of the Liberal brand–borrowing Tory Bill Davis’s quip that ‘bland works’–and proved to be a big part of his success in selling himself as the safe alternative in 2007. But the problem for McGuinty and the Liberals is that 2011 isn’t 2007: today’s voters seem to be more willing to go with bombast instead of bland (see Ford, Rob).”

And yet, some may say …  the ultimate question could be: “Is anyone really offering bombast?” beyond the strange Ford brothers cult in the provincial capital city?

Those were the days ... before Rob Ford ... and many other things too!

It is true enough that on Tuesday, August 23 the same John Michael McGrath at Toronto Life was reporting: “Tim Hudak keeps giving Liberals more ways to paint him as a Harris-era Tory.”Â  Then on Wednesday, August 31 no less an authority on Ontario politics than the Vancouver Sun told us “Rae blasts Ontario’s Hudak as ‘Tea Party’ Tory.”Â  On Friday, September 2  Daniel Dale at the Toronto Star reported on Mayor Rob Ford’s annual near-suburban barbecue,  in “Burgers with a side of politics.” On the same day, the Star’s David Rider wrote about a prominent guest at the barbecue, in “Hudak plunges into dangerous liaison with Rob Ford.”

(And yes, some of us are old enough to actually remember  that great French movie, Les liaisons dangereuses – directed by Roger Vadim. NB: “The film’s score was composed by Thelonious Monk, with additional music by ‘Jack Marray’ [an alias for Duke Jordan], Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Barney Wilen and Kenny Clarke.”)

These 2011 signs for the Liberal MPP from Kitchener Centre, John Milloy, do seem a bit more purple than stark red!

But then in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, on September 3, at the start of the Labour Day weekend, Karen Howlett – a lady who has been watching Ontario politics up close for quite a while –  gave us “Ontario Tory Leader Tim Hudak a man of contradictions.” And this began with: “He’s bland. He’s smart. And he stubbornly clings to the same script he’s been reading now for months: increased spending for health care. More money for education. A harmonized sales tax. And all-day kindergarten for the province … No, this is not Dalton McGuinty. It’s his rival, Tim Hudak, the man who will spend the next month crisscrossing Ontario, pleading for an end to eight years of Liberal rule. And he intends to do it not so much by opposing Mr. McGuinty as by occupying his territory – claiming the middle ground for the Progressive Conservatives and squeezing the Liberals to the marginal left.”

Ms. Howlett’s somewhat extended report on Tim Hudak (and his socialist grandfather) is certainly worth reading. But it does just raise more questions about just who Tim Hudak is? (Vaguely similar questions about Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath [pronounced “Hoarvath”] seem relevant too. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, who has absolutely no chance of becoming the next Premier of Ontario, of course matters less – in practice if not in principle.)

NDP leader Andrea Horwath, also wearing purple?

Ms. Howlett’s report ends with: “Mr. Hudak was asked recently if he is a blend of a blue Tory and a red Tory. His answer does nothing to diminish his reputation as something of a political chameleon … ‘Does that give you purple?’ he asked.” It is similarly striking how 2011 Ontario Liberal signage and campaign offices seem to be leaning towards some version of purple, or at least dark red?. (Fans of the old United Province of Canada politics in the mid 19th century may remember John Sandfield Macdonald,  Louis-Victor Sicotte, and “Les Mauves.”)  Orange inevitably figures prominently on the NDP website. But the colour at the very top is blue! And a prominent photo of Ms. Horwath has her dressed – you guessed it – in a purple blouse.