Kathleen Wynne is first woman premier of Ontario, at least for a bit
Kathleen Wynne faces battle trying to govern with a minority
Kathleen Wynne chosen as Ontario Liberal leader on third ballot, replaces Dalton McGuinty as premier. Photo: handout.
By Bruce A. Stewart
Kathleen Wynne became the new leader of the Ontario Liberals Saturday, replacing Dalton McGuinty and becoming the first female premier of Canada’s largest province.
Wynne, the MPP for Don Valley West in Toronto, twas chosen on the third ballot as tens of thousands marched through downtown Toronto and protested outside the former Maple Leaf Gardens.
Kathleen Wynne will succeed Dalton McGuinty as premier of the province in a few days. How long she’ll keep the job after that is the much more interesting question.
Last October, the noose was closing on McGuinty and his government. On Oct. 15, Premier Dad prorogued the legislature and tendered his resignation, to avoid contempt of Parliament charges being laid in the legislature (his energy minister, Chris Bentley, already faced them) and the boiling issues of fiscal malfeasance and lack of oversight at ORNGE, the use of some $200 million of taxpayer funds to cancel and relocate gas-fired power plants to save Liberal seats during the 2011 election campaign, and the growing furore with the teachers’ unions in the province.
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Kathleen Wynne, who has been McGuinty’s education minister (2006-10), transportation minister (2010-11) and combined minister of municipal affairs and housing and aboriginal affairs (2011-12) before resigning to run for the leadership, has been a key figure during the years in which scandal upon scandal and mounds of debt built up as the McGuinty legacy. While Wynne personally has not been touched by some of the McGuinty years more heinous failures, she cannot (as some of the other leadership candidates could have) say “these things didn’t happen on my watch”, either.
It’s expected the legislature will be called back after the Family Day holiday, on Feb. 19. Thanks to the prorogation, a throne speech will be required.
At that point, Ontario will see if the gloves come off.
During the Liberals’ leadership run, Opposition Leader Tim Hudak of the Progressive Conservatives issued a string of policy proposals in preparation for an election. He is on record as saying he will not support the Liberals in governing (Ontario has a minority government). His party, at the moment, also leads in the polls (at 35 per cent).
Hudak remains disliked by most of the province, however. While the mood of Ontario is to dump the Liberals from power, they do not trust Hudak to be Premier.
During the same period, the most liked leader, the NDP’s Andrea Horwath, kept a low profile. Her party remains at 30 per cent in the polls, and is likely to get the support of the teacher-led Working Families Coalition during a campaign (as it did during the by-elections of Sept. 6 last year, thanks to the legislation forcing contract terms and forestalling strike action by the teachers brought in at that time). Horwath is keeping her plans quiet, but has let it be known that she’ll judge each Liberal initiative on its merits.
Kathleen Wynne, considered to be more on the left side of the Liberal party, would be well advised to formalize a working relationship with Horwath prior to starting the session — and, given the experience of the Ontario NDP in a legislative “accord” in 1985-87 when Bob Rae was NDP leader and David Peterson became the Liberal premier (as soon as Peterson could see the opportunity, he called a snap election and gained a majority, dumping his erstwhile partner), that will probably require a formal coalition with NDPers in cabinet.
Well advised, because, the knives are already out in the Liberal party, mere hours after Wynne’s victory.
The party requires a leadership review after an election. There are those who don’t believe a public lesbian should be leader. There are those who don’t believe a Torontonian should be leader. There are those who don’t believe the party should zig left.
Then, of course, there’s the vast majority who don’t believe the Liberals should be out of power — and that someone else would be the most likely candidate to lead them back to it. (That some of those were on yesterday’s ballot is simply a coincidence, right?)
Given that the next election is equally likely to turn up another minority government, the race to force Wynne out will be fast and furious. (An election loss would also clear the air, leaving the McGuinty managerial failures and crippling decisions in the past.)
Would Horwath join a Kathleen Wynne government? It’s possible, because Wynne is willing to talk about some very necessary policy changes, starting with undoing the gridlock in the Greater Toronto/Hamilton Area.
Congestion charges, vehicle taxes and other “bring the true cost of driving to bear” exercises are part of Wynne’s leadership platform, with the money going directly to making transit improvements across the region to get people out of their cars a reality (and making up for a three decade long lack of serious investment in building capacity). You can’t shove six million people around a region with an infrastructure designed for less than half that and not cripple the local economy, and Kathleen Wynne, to her credit, has been willing to tack;e the issue head on.
Couple some improvements in Ontario’s welfare and disability systems to it (also left to languish for years), and there’d probably be enough on the table to attract Horwath to a permanent arrangement to preserve the Liberal government.
McGuinty was Premier through three terms not so much because he was good, but because he faced atrociously bad opponents in the NDP’s Howard Hampton and the PC’s Ernie Eves, John Tory and Tim Hudak. Wynne hasn’t got that luck with Horwath — and carries McGuinty’s baggage to boot.
So it’s deal for Kathleen Wynne — or a general election to lose, possibly on the Throne Speech itself. Welcome to the leadership of another broken Liberal party.
Category: Ontario
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