Wynne warns of NDP, Tory majorities
Ontario’s Liberal premier is making last-ditch efforts to warn voters away from electing a majority NDP or Progressive Conservative government, after admitting over the weekend that her party can’t win Thursday’s election.
At a morning event in Toronto on Monday, Kathleen Wynne stressed voters are and should be concerned with the possibility of either of her opponents seizing a majority, and declined to say whether one option would more alarming than the other.
“I am saying that there are risks associated with both and I just am asking that people look at those risks,’’ she said.
Wynne said an NDP majority government would lead to indefinite strikes because of a rigid ideological opposition to back-to-work legislation. The premier also said she thinks Tory Leader Doug Ford has turned out to be “even more disturbing to people’’ than expected and she has talked to Conservatives who don’t want to vote for him.
The Liberal leader’s bombshell weekend announcement predicting her party’s loss came as a surprise to at least some of her candidates, who said the decision was laid out in a conference call shortly be- fore it was made public. Some said they learned of it through social media.
On Saturday, Wynne acknowledged that some of her slate may be angry or sad, but she said Monday the feedback has been largely positive.
“What I’m hearing from candidates is that it is allowing them to make the argument at the door that there will the change that people are looking, there’s change that people want — that I will not be the premier, that the Liberals will not be forming a government,’’ she said.
“And that allows people to reconsider and think about voting for us in order to prevent what a lot of people are worried about, which is a Doug Ford majority or an NDP majority.’’
In the riding of Toronto-st. Paul’s, which has historically been Liberal, the party’s candidate Jess Spindler said that regardless of Wynne’s decision, she will continue to pitch herself as a voice for the community on issues such as child care.