The Star’s view

Whatever her failings, Wynne is still the most impressive of the three major party leaders,

If anyone needed proof that life and politics are unfair, consider the case of Kathleen Wynne.

As premier of Ontario, she presides over a province that can boast faster economic growth overall than the rest of Canada and the other G7 nations. Unemployment is at a 20-year low; wages are rising; investment and people are pouring in.

Her government has tackled some of the thorniest issues around, such as precarious work and climate change. It has pioneered in pension reform and pharmacare, expanded child care, invested hugely in the energy grid and infrastructure and led the country in progressive social legislation.

Wynne’s reward for all this? A big slap in the face from voters. Campaigning for re-election on June 7, her Liberal party is stuck far down in the polls, running a poor third as Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives and Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats duke it out for first place. And Wynne herself, as the polls have shown for many months, is a big part of the reason. Most voters long ago tuned her out; some don’t like her policies and many others simply don’t like or trust her. They simply won’t give her or her party a proper hearing.

Wynne knows there’s no point in grumbling about all this, although she admitted to the Star’s editorial board on Monday that the naked antipathy toward her “doesn’t feel great.” Voters have apparently decided this election is all about “change,” and there may be no way to change their minds.

We’ll know their verdict in little over a week. But before the vote, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on Wynne and her legacy. And the conclusion has to be that the disdain for her is massively out of proportion to her personal faults and the shortcomings of her government.

Obviously, 15 years is an awfully long time for any party to be in power. The Liberals racked up their full share of policy bungles and scandals during that time, mostly under her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty. Some of them — such as the e-Health fiasco and the politically motivated gas plant relocations — cost taxpayers a bundle. More recently, Wynne’s government let hydro bills get out of control before finally bringing them down.

The temptation to throw the bums out at a certain point is a healthy democratic reaction, and it’s no surprise the Liberals are fighting that sentiment now.

It’s also undeniably true that much of the province hasn’t shared in the wealth of Ontario’s recent prosperity. The GTA and Waterloo corridor are booming, but big areas such as the southwest and Windsor have stagnated in the face of deindustrialization. There’s scant comfort for people there in Ontario’s headline economic numbers.

All this means that any Liberal premier would have an uphill battle to persuade voters to give the party a fifth consecutive mandate. But if the polls don’t change significantly over the next nine days, Wynne is facing not just defeat, but humiliation. And that she definitely does not deserve.

Whatever her failings, Wynne is still the most impressive leader among the three people vying to form Ontario’s next government. Compared to Ford, in particular, there’s no contest. During Sunday evening’s leaders debate and at the Star, Wynne showed a wide-ranging grasp of the issues facing the province. Ford displayed a mix of bombast and bumpersticker rhetoric that was frankly embarrassing. The two simply don’t play in the same league.

Ontarians have a big decision to make next week, and barring a massive turnaround, they’ll turn the page on the Liberals and put either the PCs or NDP in power at Queen’s Park.

Whatever the verdict, Wynne can be proud of her legacy.

Wynne is still the most impressive leader among the candidates