Voters bring a door-slamming end to Liberal rule
Well, Ontario, you wanted change. And oh boy, did you ever get it.
The complete upheaval a surly electorate promised over the month-long campaign — a door-slamming end to 15 years of Liberal rule — registered like thunder Thursday night.
Shunned by about four out of five Ontario voters, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals ended the night in near oblivion, imploding from majority rule to single-digit seats in the legislature.
You trowed da bums out with resounding unity, painting blue and orange throughout what was for a generation a blanket of Ontario red.
The historic shellacking appears to have stripped the Liberals of official party status, meaning they now will have to rebuild without the staff funding and other privileges that come with the threshold of eight or more seats.
But that’s where the unity ended. Having carved away the middle, the scythe of Ontario’s anger broke apart against two wildly divergent visions of the way forward.
In raw numbers, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won by more than a nose, but far less than a landslide, claiming 40 per cent versus 35 per cent for Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats. The difference was about one out of every 20 Ontario voters.
But as pollsters had fore- warned, the numbers were deceptive. Even in a dead heat, better vote distribution favoured a PC victory. And so that small numerical advantage — coupled with the amplifying effects of the our 19th-century first-past-the-post format — turned the trickle into a Tory triumph. A majority triumph, ending the night anointed with some 74 seats to easily ensure clear legislative sailing ahead, regardless of what the opposition has to say about it.
Premier Doug Ford. Try that out on your tongue a few times. And if you are among the many Ontarians who has made a hobby of laughing long and hard over all that has happened south of the border since the election of Donald Trump, say it again.