Ontario has awakened Friday to a political map that makes it look like three provinces. Downtown Toronto is NDP orange while the rest of the province below Sudbury is largely Conservative blue. The enormous northern hinterland up to the Manitoba border and Hudson Bay is orange as well. A man from Etobicoke is the premier-elect. He is the not very smooth-talking brother of one of the most problematic mayors that Toronto has ever endured. Many say the PC victory would have been even larger if the party had been led by Christine Elliott. The new premier is viewed by many as a right-wing renegade. Whatever his impulses however, he seems to possess some capacity for restraint when his utterances backfire.
NDP, LIBERALS
His opponent as leader of the Opposition is a woman from Hamilton who many fear as a socialist radical. Her popularity in the NDP has remained solid in spite of her consistent support for the Wynne minority government throughout the hideous gas plant scandal. There is no money she would leave unspent. The Ontario Liberal Party is reduced to a political rump of merely seven seats. This would seem to be a long-overdue rejection of policies pursued through five years by a self-avowed activist. For good or ill, Kathleen Wynne pursued energy policies that both infuriated and terrified many. There were hints the Liberals might even eliminate natural gas as a home heating fuel. Most of all, the government cost taxpayers billions. But the ever well-intentioned Wynne was and is a political figure of human titanium. A charming person to meet, some will add that she is also wily beyond belief. She won Don Valley West by 181 votes.
