Baird defends Hudak, says disgruntled Ontario Tories just "nervous nellies" Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has come to the defence of Tim Hudak, dismissing critics of the besieged Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader as "a few nervous nellies." While some disgruntled Tories have called for Mr. Hudak to be subjected to a leadership review after a disappointing showing in last week's by-elections, Mr. Baird said Thursday the provincial opposition party should "be focusing on tackling Ontario's problems, not a few naysayers tackling each other." "Winning involves unity," Mr. Baird, a former Ontario PC minister, told The Globe and Mail in a phone interview from Rio de Janeiro. We've got to stay focused on who the real enemy is, and that's bloated government, big deficits and lagging employment numbers in Ontario. Tim is the one to tackle those, and now is not the time to be inward-looking. Calling the leadership of Ontario's opposition "the toughest political job in Canada," Mr. Baird noted that Mr. Hudak already passed a leadership review following the 2011 election, which his party failed to win after leading in the polls. And he praised Mr. Hudak's response to his failure to win power in that campaign, crediting him for subsequently coming out with "a lot of substance, a lot of policy and a clear conservative direction for the province." "Tim took responsibility for the last election campaign," Mr. Baird said. You never see a leader do that, ever. We've grown from that. Mr. Baird and Mr. Hudak are long-time friends, having come of political age together as young MPPs in the Mike Harris government. "They say you don't know someone until you've walked a thousand miles in their shoes," the federal minister said. Well, I've walked a thousand miles with this guy. Mr. Baird went out of his way to say that he was not calling at the request of Mr. Hudak or his officials. "I really believe strongly in this," he said. I wasn't asked to do this; I'm doing it of my own volition.