THAT’S THE LIBERAL WAY

Steven Del Duca is said to harbour ambitions to become premier of Ontario one day. Del Duca is currently transportation minister, in charge of a multi-billion-dollar transit expansion. The province, of course, already has a premier, who has made clear her intention of leading the party into the next election despite her overwhelming unpopularity.

Recent polls suggest that while the Liberals are mildly less unpopular than they were before they started doling out subsidies for hydro bills and championing a $15 minimum wage, Premier Kathleen Wynne remains deeply disliked. Fewer than one in seven respondents have a positive response to her record. One survey even suggested the government’s stronghold in Toronto could be crumbling.

Well aware of her standing, Wynne has taken to insisting she’s not in the job to be liked. “The people who love me are my family and I go home to them,” she said Tuesday when asked, once again, why Ontarians aren’t fond of her.

Any politicians who claims they’re not interested in popularity is a politician who knows they’re in trouble. Politicians want to be loved. They think they’re “serving the public,” doing the things that need to be done to make life better for constituents, even if the constituents are too thickwitted to appreciate it. It’s what keeps them going (in addition to large, well-insulated egos). “My job,” Wynne added Tuesday in typical self-serving style, “is to make sure that the people of Ontario have the best opportunity possible.”

Del Duca reportedly thinks he could do that too, which may be why he’s already practicing throwing his weight around. The Toronto Star has been having great fun all week revealing how Del Duca pressured Metrolinx, the regional transit body, into approving a new GO station in his riding, even after it had been rejected as a bad idea that would have a harmful impact on the system.

Quoting documents obtained in a freedom of information request, the Star reported that the proposed station in Del Duca’s Vaughan riding wouldn’t be busy enough, would slow transit times, discourage ridership and perhaps push people back into their cars instead. Even after taking a second look at the proposed station, Metrolinx staff recommended against it, suggesting it be put off for 10 years.

Despite the recommendation, Metrolinx discovered Del Duca planned to announce 12 new stations, including the one in his riding. Among hurried backand-forth emails, a closeddoor meeting was held at which Metrolinx decided “updated information” suddenly justified a change of mind. The result: $100 million will be spent on a station Metrolinx twice decided, after in-depth analysis, was not only wholly unnecessary but would also be a drag on the system.

A hundred million isn’t a big number for this Ontario government, which has poured many times that amount into much bigger boondoggles. Considering the $312 billion debt it has amassed during its time in office, it’s barely worth mentioning.

Perhaps that’s why Del Duca felt entitled to insist he get his way over the agency whose job it is to make these decisions. The Liberals under Wynne and her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, have rarely shied from treating public affairs as personal fiefdoms. Directives emanating from the energy minister’s office are one of the many reasons the provincial power system has become such an unholy disaster. If Del Duca does have an eye on higher office, getting a little experience in tax wastage with a small initial incursion could be just the thing.

Reflecting the imperiousness that typifies the Liberals, Del Duca has shied away from explaining his actions. Repeated requests only managed to produce a letter to Metrolinx chairman Robert Pritchard in which Del Duca observes blandly that “concerns have been raised” about the decision-making process. In some timely butt-protection, he instructs Pritchard in the letter that Metrolinx “will not enter into any contractual obligations” for the station until they are convinced of its merits.

If they were convinced, of course, they wouldn’t have rejected it twice.

Pritchard served seven years as a top executive at Torstar, the Star’s parent, including president and chief executive officer. He’s evidently misplaced his internal phone book, though, as the paper has had a hard time squeezing a response out of him. It did manage to get a word — just one — when it asked if he still stood by the approval process. “Yes,” he said, via a spokesperson.

Wynne doesn’t really need another distraction as she girds for the election due less than 10 months from now. She will already undergo the embarrassment of testifying at a bribery trial related to Liberal shenanigans at a 2015 byelection in Sudbury. She could have avoided the trial, but evidently wants to stand up for her friend and former aide, Patricia Sorbara. A second criminal trial is due around the same time, into allegations against two former McGuinty aides related to the destruction of documents in a $1 billion gas-plant scandal.

Wynne’s environment minister, Glen Murray, recently quit for a job in Alberta, no great loss considering Murray’s record, but it gives the impression of ministers fleeing a troubled government.

The premier recently made a show of delivering an upbeat address to a public caucus meeting, underlining once again her determination to take the party into the next election.

Liberals these days are all about helping young people, she declared. A new drug program, a higher minimum wage, efforts to lower stratospheric housing costs … “We’re not afraid to tackle those challenges,” she proclaimed.

Nevermind that the drug program is targeted at those least likely to get sick, and $15 an hour isn’t likely to buy many homes in a city where prices start at $1 million. The Liberals are determined to press ahead, notwithstanding. And if that means building an unnecessary $100 million GO station in the transportation minister’s riding, well, that’s what serving the public is all about.