Columnist ecstatic with the election of a Liberal government; beside himself with the end of a 70 year run of Conservative MPP’s

By Ray Rivers

June 14, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

What a night; what an election!  Ontario voters have rejected the roller coaster, recessionary, austerity program the opposition PC’s were promising.  Instead we have bought into the hope, promise and reconstruction offered in the last provincial budget by Premier Kathleen Wynne.  And the NDP, which had precipitated the election, ended up being marginalized.

The promise was clear – not to see how well she delivers on that promise.

PC leader Hudak also announced he was stepping down as leader, something which will be music to the ears of the growing number of Ontario conservatives who don’t share his ‘Tea Party north’ vision for this province.  The Globe and Mail, which had been critical of Hudak’s ill-conceived election platform surprised many with its conditional endorsement of the PC leader (Tory minority).  Reports indicate that the Editorial Board may have been coerced by the paper’s owners, apparently causing dissent among editorial board members and making a mockery of the claim of independence for ‘Canada’s so-called national newspaper’.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath needs to consider also stepping down, given her disappointing performance over the last year and during the campaign.  Horwath falsely accused the Premier and her party of ‘corruption’.  Then, having caused the election, she was inept at producing a credible platform of her own – leaving her fellow candidates and party supporters baffled and rebelling.   What was clearly a cynical play to expand her party’s seat count failed miserably and cost us all – paying for an election we neither needed nor wanted.

By her unqualified victory last night Wynne has freed herself from the legacy of the McGuinty era scandals which had plagued her from her first day as Premier.   Moreover she now has a mandate to lead the province onto the path she has promised would restore the provincial economy.  And of course, she will need to grapple with the significant budgetary deficit still ahead as well as a debt-load inherited from the years past.

That will likely mean paying attention to the revenue side of the equation as well as the cost side.  So Ontario residents should expect a return to a more equitable and fulsome taxation regime.  The province has the most efficient (least cost) government in the country.  So while she will need to consider ways to restrain the mushrooming size of government services, that alone will not be enough to remove us from the ‘have-not’ list of provinces.

There were other big changes in this election as well.  Locally, Burlington, where I once ran,  against the odds, finally went Liberal with Eleanor McMahon winning after  70 years of  Tory dominance.  Ted McMeekin, in Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough and Westdale, retained his seat and can be expected to resume duties in Premier Wynne’s new Cabinet.

Halton voters put an end to the 20 years of Ted Chudleigh’s reign as Liberal Indira Naidoo-Harris pushed him out, convincingly.  Chudleigh’s ouster represents the changing demographics of one of the fastest growing communities in Canada – one that he and his friend Mayor Gordon Kranz created.  Can a similar fate be in the cards for Kranz this upcoming municipal election?

Premier Wynne has been given four years to implement her program of renewal and reconstruction for Ontario.  This is an heroic undertaking given the global world we live in and the lack of support from a federal government best described as anti-Ontario.  To be successful the Premier will need all of our support – after all we are all in this Ontario together.

 Background links:

Voters Decide     Liberal Win      Wynne Settles the Debate      Globe Editorial Board

Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province. He developed the current policy process for the Ontario Liberal Party.