Tom Long (politician)

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For the Australian actor Tom Long, see Tom Long (actor)

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.