Under pressure to come up with some catchy new policies, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leader is going to extremes in pushing for spectacles in which muscular young men kick opponents to the floor and batter their prostrate bodies with fists and elbows.

Tim Hudak has fairly been accused of offering few policies of his own since being chosen last June and merely criticizing those of Premier Dalton McGuinty, particularly his spending increases during a recession and tax increases through harmonizing the province’s sales tax with its federal equivalent.

Hudak is now suggesting the province allow professional contests of what their advocates charitably call mixed martial arts, which already are permitted in some provinces and parts of the United States. In these, contestants are allowed to kick opponents, punch them with barely padded fists, pound them with elbows and knees that particularly damage, and choke them until they surrender by tapping out.

Ontario traditionally has permitted boxing, in which participants can strike only with fists in more padded gloves, and specifically forbids kicking, tripping, holding and hitting opponents when they are down.

The province more recently has authorized kick-boxing, in which combatants still are barred from striking with elbows and knees and hitting opponents when they are down.

The events draw huge audiences where they are permitted and on pay TV and stations that otherwise offer mainly re-runs of violent crime shows, while audiences for some sports including boxing are declining.

The Conservative leader said McGuinty is missing an opportunity to make money by attracting tourists and too intent on banning things such as pit bulls and candy sales in schools, and called him “Premier Dad.”

The Liberal premier countered that permitting the events is not a priority, and a spokesman for the premier added that the Province has to review any new sport to ensure it is safe.

The “ultimate fighting” involves methods of hurting opponents not permitted in Ontario rings before, and in any bout seen on TV at least one contestant winds up with face badly cut and blood smeared over him and the floor.

Its organizers have not produced records showing that these injuries do not leave permanent effects, but two U.S. fighters have died of injuries sustained in such contests in the past 10 years.

It can be argued that severe injuries occur in hockey and football and there was a death in the luge event in the winter Olympic Games, but in these sports the sole aim is not to smash opponents to the ground and render them unable to continue.

There also have been deaths over the years in boxing, where participants aim to hurt opponents enough to prevent them continuing, and the most admired boxer of modern times, Muhammed Ali, who was noted for his agility with words, was struck so often it is considered one reason he now has great difficulty speaking.

A case can be made for banning professional boxing, which is dying in Ontario anyway, but its continued existence cannot justify introducing an even less desirable form of violence into the province.

Nor can the fact many watch the events elsewhere or on TV. Many would watch executions in China if they were on TV here, because they are drawn to the macabre, but that would not justify screening them here.

Mixed martial arts is not a sport, which dictionaries define as a recreational activity, game or competition requiring physical activity, because almost none of those who watch it perform in it, but a show put on by

few who risk health for money.

Its most public advocate here is former Liberal premier David Peterson, whose law firm lobbies for it, but was last seen discussing the sporting life dressed elegantly in riding habit and musing on the joy of trotting around his Caledon estate — he will not experience the blood and pain of mixed martial arts.

Many Ontarians also are quietly proud that Ontario sometimes is more civilized than other places and will not be upset that McGuinty is discouraging these back alley brawls.