I’m not a PC Party member so I’m not going to make any endorsements. Well, scratch that, I endorse Randy Hillier. Please vote for Randy. Not just because it would mean an easy win for McGuinty, but also because, as was pointed out to me by a clever grit this weekend, it raises the very real possibility of a PC campaign run under a “Are You Feeling Randy?” slogan.

In all seriousness, Hillier has run a solid campaign. As I said in my profile of him, he’s latched on to some good conservative issues people can relate to, and has been nothing but a consistent voice for the right wing of his party. Whoever wins is going to have a tough time marginalizing Hillier, especially if he’s able to move his votes to Hudak for the win.

Frank Klees may be a good candidate. But, for the life of me, I’m so incredibly uninterested in his campaign and him that I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to complete my website profile series (other than to say: Damn, that is one big picture of Frank on his website). In fairness, a lot of people probably said the same thing about Dalton McGuinty when he ran for Ontario Liberal leadership in 1996, and they certainly said the same thing about Ed Stelmach when he won the Alberta PC leadership in 2006. But, I’m not a PC member, and life is just too short to spend it researching Frank Klees.

So this weekend’s vote, if the pundits are to be believed (always a risk in leadership contests), comes down to Tim Hudak and Christine Elliott. Of the two, I think Elliott has run the best campaign, would make the better Premier, and would be a more formidable opponent to Dalton McGuinty in 2011. In a leadership race lasting all summer, I don’t doubt for a second that she could have reeled in Hudak and won it.

But Hudak had a leadership-ready team in place, and a big lead when this thing started. In a short contest, that’s worth a lot more than substance. In a delegated convention, he might have been Iggy’d in a front-runner gang-up, but I suspect the individual voters’ second choices will scatter (or they’ll leave the ballot blank), allowing Hudak to eek it out on the third ballot.

We’ll find out this weekend.