Although she’s yet to officially be sworn in as the 25th premier of Ontario, yesterday Kathleen Wynne “received the official nod to form government” (as per The Globe and Mail). Once she dots the ceremonial i’s and crosses the official t’s, she’ll become, in one fell swoop, both the first female premier and the first homosexual premier in Ontario’s history. Somewhere, George Smitherman just threw a hissy fit…
Of course, while she’s yet to assume official duties, the Toronto Star is already praising Wynne (surprise, surprise) with an editorial entitled “Unlike Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, Ontario’s future premier Kathleen Wynne is an adult.” Could we expect any less from the newspaper whose secret slogan is “Rob Ford sucks more that a great big bag of blow jobs!”? Of course, The Star are known Liberal supporters, too. You could put a red tie on Bob Rae, and they’d be suddenly singing his praises. Erm, case in point.
For a province with a recent history of putting up with its leaders past the breaking point, then promptly turfing them out of office (see Rae, Bob; Harris, Mike), the appointment of Wynne to the premiership smacks of an Alberta coronation. Of course, in Canada’s economic engine, power changes hands through a PC leadership race, not a provincial election–and that’s exactly what happened here, only on the centre-left instead of the centre-right. (Keep in mind Alberta also has a Regressive Conservative Party, aka Wildrose.) I suppose it’s our punishment for not voting out McGuinty when we had the chance. Instead, he gets to bow out, semi-gracefully, although his eventual obituary in the Toronto Sun will probably still spell his last name as McQuitty, heh heh.
Not that the official opposition parties offer much of an alternative, mind you. Tim Hudak’s stump speeches are starting to sound like a beer vendor at the Rogers Centre, while any public appearances I’ve seen from Andrea Horwath make me think that her PR team really wants her to be Jack Layton. Even in some zany alternate universe where the two sides join forces, the NDPC party might not unseat the Liberals. Mind you, they would currently have one more seat in Queen’s Park under such an improbable scenario…
So, does this mean that the Libs are now Onatrio’s Natural Governing Party? Well, perhaps until an inquiry is called into those cancelled power plants, that is. One need look no further than Quebec, where Jean Charest’s nine-year reign come to a crashing halt after bringing in the Charbonneau Commission–although the student strike certainly played a factor as well. But if Charest fell on his sword, losing his seat a la Ignatieff, McGuinty’s leap landed on a limp pool noodle. But hey, it wasn’t even the first time an unpopular Ontario premier left someone else to clean up his mess. As you may recall, Mike Harris didn’t finish out his last term, either. (Ernie Eves? He got beat in the next election like a rented boy at Boy George’s house–by McGuinty, no less!)
Then again, if we return to the McGuinty-Charest parallel, the next election would see the Liberals narrowly lose power… to a separatist entity. Rathnelly Republican Party 2015!!!!
