CFN – Ever since she was sworn in as Ontario premier in February, pundits have been predicting when Kathleen Wynne will seek a mandate from the electorate.
Most are now pointing to a spring election.
The truth is all three party leaders need an election sooner rather than later — but for different reasons.
Riding a crest of high personal approval ratings, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath needs to consolidate her political support, for fear that if her momentum wanes, she’ll miss the opportunity to gain seats in Toronto and southwestern Ontario.
Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s needs an election victory to permanently put to rest doubts about his leadershp within the party, arising from his low approval ratings with the public.
But it’s Wynne — who became premier because of a vote by Liberal partisans who were choosing a new leader — who has the most urgent need to face voters in the spring.
Her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, led the Liberals to a minority government victory in 2011 — despite the fact few gave him any chance of winning at the start of the campaign. McGuinty capitalized on Hudak’s mistakes and convinced voters to hold their noses and keep the Liberals in power.
McGuinty needed a miracle to win and got it. Wynne will need one as well.
The caucus she inherited from McGuinty is tired and past its expiry date. Most of the marquis players that McGuinty had in his cabinet have left — six in 2013 alone — including Dwight Duncan, Laurel Broten, Harinder Takhar, Margarett Best, Chris Bentley and McGuinty himself.
The remaining talent in the Liberal caucus isn’t deep enough to recover from those defections. That means there are lots of rookie cabinet ministers who need Wynne to be front-and-centre at all times, whereas McGuinty could rely on his veterans to help shoulder the load.
The public’s concerns about Wynne’s bench strength have been amplified by recent admissions that Health Minister Deb Matthews, a senior cabinet member, failed to read an audit arising from the Ornge air ambulance scandal.
Wynne herself signed a cabinet document authorizing what opposition MPPs have described as “blank cheque” negotiations with the developers of the Oakville natural gas plant to compensate them after the Liberals cancelled the project.
This despite the fact Wynne testified at the legislative inquiry into the plant cancellations that she wasn’t even consulted about that decision, or about canceling a second gas plant in Mississauga.
Meanwhile, Wynne works under the label of being an “unelected” premier — meaning she has yet to lead her party to victory in a general election — which will haunt her until the writ is dropped.
The PC and NDP campaigns will attempt to convince voters that Wynne had a far greater hand in the gas plant cancellations than her public statements suggest.
In one interview with Steve Paikin on TVO’s Agenda, Wynne apologized 11 times for the gas plant scandal, the sheer volume of them making her sound less and less sincere each time she said it.
Wynne’s advisors may well view an election as an opportunity to change the channel from past Liberal boondoggles while closing the books on McGuinty’s scandal-plagued government. Otherwise Wynne and her government could suffer a death by a thousand cuts, the longer she holds off going to the polls.
Most of McGuinty’s inner circle has already been relegated to the sidelines as Wynne is anxious to forge her own way in the upcoming campaign.
She’s already demonstrated she is a formidable campaigner, who can hold her own in Question Period against the opposition leaders, while charming and engaging the public. But Wynne can’t go on much longer without facing the electorate for a mandate.
The bigger concern is how much more of Wynne and the Liberals Ontario can take as our economy continues to sputter.
But if Hudak and the Conservatives want to capitalize on that, they’re going to have to up their game.
Maddie Di Muccio originally printed this piece in the Toronto Sun. She has graciously allowed us to reprint it here on CFN.
She is a municipal town councillor in Newmarket, and has been outspoken regarding transparent and accountable government, appearing on the Michael Coren Show, Newstalk 1010, AM 640, and various print media. Di Muccio has hosted local lectures on a series of “Empowering” groups of individuals and featuring prominent personalities, and was invited to speak on empowering females in politics at the Manning Network Convention for 2013. She writes a bi-weekly column on GTA municipal issues in the Toronto Sun. As vice-president for Society for Quality Education, her priorities focus on children and youth issues and concerns. Di Muccio is the parent of three school-age boys.
All the jackals are getting lined up for another dog and pony show so as to fleece the sheeple of more money and push us further and further into the pit. McGuilty and McWinnie are two jackals who have done this to us and who is next to do us even more harm.
And who will you vote for this time ’round jules? Or will you abstain again?
For someone with so many opinions on everyone and everything, funny you don’t try to make anything better. Funny too, you won’t use your vote to stop the negative downward spiral you claim we are in. Why is that?
What would have to change to make you be a better citizen of this nation? What alterations would make it worth your effort to vote jules?
The Ontario liberal machine is very good at what they do, get elected. You wold think sticks in the cogs masquerading as billion dollar boondoggles would change that. Ontario really needs some spending controls!
Too bad the Cons have such a weaselly leader. The Libs should have been tossed in the last election.
“bella-b” you just enjoy jumping on my case but it doesn’t bug me a bit so keep it on coming bella. About me voting I voted for years and even once I had a dreadful insanity of voting for Mike Harris (aka Harrass” once and never again. All these jackals represent a party and do not give one iota about the people (sheeple) and about voting nothing will change until the sheeple wake up and fight and even with the fight we still lose. The same is true in tiny Cornwall nothing will change unless there are good and honest people in as mayor and aldermen forget the 10 councel for such a tiny town. All are ripping off the system and that is from Parliament Hill all the way down. Don’t think that your vote is counted everyone is controlled by the same source. I gave up when I found out the truth.
So it’s apathy that prevents you from preforming your civic duty? Let us hope that more folks like to swim in my pool and than drown in yours.
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Do you feel jumped on jules? do you feel I am picking on you? You are mistaken. I usually try to ignore you and your monotonous posts, but sometimes insanity grabs me and I find myself hypnotized by your prolific prose. If you don’t want to be judged by the words you spew, think before you hit the ‘post comment’ button. Consider who will read your words, and who your words will touch. CFN has thousands of monthly clickers and just because they don’t express their disgust with your racist ignorant drivel doesn’t mean they are not out there. I just have a way lower bullshit tolerance level than most. Sue me!
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I hope you take the time to learn about your local candidates in the Ottawa area and try to make your little corner of the world a better place. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about little old Cornwall from where you choose to make your home. Leave it the locals and we’ll leave you to yours.
bella I don’t have to shut up for you or for anyone so get that one straight once and for all. I can say what I want to as long as it is within reason. I have tons of things that I would love to say but there are moderators who would not put through a lot of what I have said and even what I would love to say. Cornwall is polluted in more ways than one and you seem to be a smart enough cookie to figure that one out.
bella, jules, calm down, we all know that no matter how you vote there is going to be someone in control of your best interests whether good or bad. in the first class of politics in high school the first words out of my teachers mouth were, when you vote and if you vote, vote for the lesser of the two evils. justice is blind
john rothwell, teachers say the darnedest things. I remember a teacher friend telling me governments are like babies, they need to be changed. Of course this was said only when conservatives were in power.
From Maddie Di Muccio’s article: “Most are now pointing to a spring election.
The truth is all three party leaders need an election sooner rather than later — but for different reasons.”
The question ought to be; Why do the voters need an election? Is the general Ontario public really upset at the present Liberal government? No, otherwise they would be protesting. Yes, the politically involved from all political parties are playing politics but what about the general public. They barely care to vote nor are they very interested in politics. Most people state that politicians are all the same and it don’t matter which party they are with. Professional politicians switch parties and the no other occupation has such an (ahem) “honourable” reputation given by the public. What do people really care about? Their own occupations, families, friends and the acquaintances they exchange with. What do people expect from politicians? Free stuff at the expense of other tax payers.
Darcy aren’t you missing the greater issue in that we elect these politicians to represent us. Therefore their decision on when to call an election is ours. If we don’t take greater care in whom we elect thus the problems that impact all of us. For example you’re a Libertarian. You literally have no possibility of electing someone to represent you at any level at this point in time. I’m not a Hyper Non – Partisan. I will examine each candidate and party election by election. Who do you think has a better chance of making their vote count when it comes to their issues?