It’s a Liberal Majority. Wow! Haven’t had one of those for a while. And I think that sends a very powerful, very clear message to the other two parties about just how much nonsense the electorate is willing to choke down. Seriously, though, if you lead your campaign with “I’m cutting 100,000 jobs but then I’m going to create a million” just what did you think was going to happen? Sorry, Mr. Hudak, but evidently we’re not as stupid as you hoped we’d be. Thank God! Stepping down promptly was the right move, by the way. And I don’t think the Federal Conservative Party will be asking for your resume anytime soon, either. This is one mess they didn’t want to have to clean up. A lot of Tory strongholds fell like dominoes on election night. That’s a lot of losses in the province of plenty. And that’s ground that will come at a high cost to recover for the next Federal Election.
As for the NDP, I think it is safe to say Andrea Horwath learned a very valuable lesson at the taxpayers’ expense. I don’t think she will be challenging budgets again anytime soon. The only thing saving her at this point is that she is still new, not that that should be an excuse. The election was a bad call on her part, and she’s got some serious work to do around re-establishing her party as the brand people can trust and believe in. What has worked for the NDP in the past is what they sorely lack now on both the provincial and federal levels: a charismatic leader with vision who believably will defend the average Canadian and their interests against the more self-serving issues of the other two major parties.
As for the Liberals, they should consider this a bona fide intervention by Fate. This is a second chance not to be wasted. Truth is, nobody wanted to hand Kathleen Wynne a win, but she was the lesser of three evils. The old “rock, cliff and a hard place” scenario. Now, she has the chance to truly absolve herself of the taint of Dalton McGuinty’s scandals – and don’t think we’re finished with him yet. He’s got other skeletons buried just waiting to fall out. Kathleen needs to commit the party to rebuilding Ontario, not just rebuilding her party’s tarnished image. What she can accomplish provincially will carry on up federally, for Justin Trudeau to use to bolster his sagging credibility. I see the political leader in Wynne, and I see a unique person who can take the helm: she is not the traditional older white male at all. She is a new face when the party desperately needs one, in a province that has demographically morphed beyond recognition from what it was 30 years ago.
To Kathleen Wynne I say this: You’ve been given one hell of an opportunity to leave your mark and Ontario needs a real leader. Lead us out of the mess of the past and show us how to build the future. Your time is now.
Issues and Intersections 