The Ontario Factor.

This article emphasizes central Canada's importance to national political campaigns. Belinda Stronach's hometown, Aurora, Ont., just north of Toronto, is as good a place as any to ponder the fate of the new Conservative Party of Canada. The meeting was held well away from the maple-shaded streets of Aurora's historic core, in the auditorium of a much newer high school amid subdivisions typical of Toronto's sprawling penumbra--out past the urban Liberal strongholds, into the suburbs and beyond, where federal Conservative hopes of an all-important Ontario revival lie. It was hardly the tactic of a calm and confident campaign, and the party refused to grant the extension. Tony Clement, the scrappy long shot, jumped on signs that Stronach was faltering, trying for a last-ditch push to persuade Conservatives to look at him as their Ontario saviour.Ontario is a prize Conservative strategists are hardly alone in contemplating. This week, the Conservative leadership teams will focus on the province for their stretch run. In the weeks and months to follow, just about everyone who plays or watches the federal political game may come to share the same obsession.