Liberals name Fraser interim leader
Ottawa South MPP John Fraser has been tapped as interim Liberal leader until the devastated party picks a replacement for outgoing Premier Kathleen Wynne.
Fraser got the recommendation Wednesday as shellshocked MPPs and cabinet ministers — still feeling the sting from last Thursday’s rout at the polls — met for the final time.
“They are terrific people and they are processing a really hard, sad moment,” a visibly strained Wynne said after emerging from a three-hour meeting where the future of the party — now reduced to just seven members — was top of mind.
“There is a rebuild that’s going to have to happen, there’s no doubt,” she added.
“There was a lot of optimism about that and there’s a lot of sadness, obviously, in this moment. You can have those feelings all at the same time. That’s what was going on in that room,” Wynne told reporters as she walked down a long secondfloor hallway to a corner office she will soon vacate for premier-designate Doug Ford.
Defeated Liberals had other matters on their minds — many have Toronto apartments to clear out and 10 business days from the election to empty their offices.
There was also a post-mortem on the election that saw voters give Ford’s PCs 76 seats, 40 to New Democrats and one to Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner in a sweeping desire for change after 15 years of Liberal rule.
“It was visceral,” noted outgoing Economic Development Minister Steven Del Duca.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa, whose spring budget put the province back into deficit for a raft of programs including expanded child care and pharmacare, said “it may have been too much at once.”
While the party’s not over, it has lost official status. Remaining Liberal MPPs acknowledged they have a lot of work ahead to bring it back to life.
“The first thing is listening to people, to get a better understanding of why people felt so disconnected,” said outgoing cabinet minister Michael Coteau, re-elected in Don Valley East in a battle with PC candidate Denzil Minnan-Wong.