Abject defeat a good look for Ontario’s Liberals

Ontario’s incumbent Liberals have been obliterated. Outgoing premier Kathleen Wynne, narrowly re-elected in her own Toronto riding, will now lead a rump caucus of a mere seven MPPs. The Liberals had pinned their final hopes on simply maintaining official party status. They fell one seat short.

Abject defeat is a good look for Wynne and Co. The party was properly and mightily punished by voters not merely for their policy debacles, of which there were many, or for their ethical failures, which exist in similar abundance. They were rejected in 117 out of 124 races this week because of their overwhelming arrogance. Even on those rare occasions when the party was forced to admit wrongdoing, they always stressed how their main failure was being too slow to catch on to a problem, rather than chronic mismanagement, while insisting they were always doing their best, most noble work.

Wynne said on Friday she hopes incoming premier Doug Ford bends the rules to grant her caucus official status, but there’s no reason for that: the party failed to hit the minimum threshold despite a newly enlarged legislature. The voters spoke loudly and clearly in rejecting the Liberals. Their will should be honoured.

That leaves only the NDP, with 40 seats to the PCs’ 76, to hold Doug Ford accountable (and he surely requires it). But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, having now run three elections against an increasingly unpopular Liberal party, has never been able to seal any deal with Ontario voters. There will surely never be a better chance than the one she just fumbled away. The Liberals were despised. The PCs were in disarray and ran a lacklustre campaign under a polarizing leader. Horwath got a generally soft ride from the media. Yet the NDP’s “big night” was a distant-second-place finish, made possible only by the Liberals’ implosion. Ontarians need and deserve a strong opposition party in their legislature. NDP members would be right to wonder if they have the right person for that job.