Wynne marks historic victory in Ontario
Kathleen Wynne, Canada’s first gay premier-designate who will become the country’s sixth sitting female premier, says she intends to be defined by what she does for Ontario and not her sexual orientation after her selection as the province’s Liberal leade
TORONTO — Canada’s first gay premier-designate called her elevation to Ontario’s highest political office “historic” on Sunday, but stressed she intends to be defined by what she does for the province and not her sexual orientation.
“I am not a gay activist, that’s not how I got into politics, so I am not going to spend the next month talking about it,” Kathleen Wynne said at her first news conference after her dramatic selection as provincial Liberal leader at a Toronto convention Saturday.
“But it is important to me that young people — and people who are frightened — see the possibility that if I can help people to be less frightened, that’s a wonderful thing.”
Wynne said that what makes her proudest is seeing Canadian women slowly break the glass ceiling in Canadian politics. When she is sworn in, likely next week, Wynne will give Canada five female premiers — and six first ministers in all, counting Nunavut.
The 59-year-old Wynne does have some history of community activism, though: Among other things, she founded a group opposed to the amalgamation of Toronto in the late 1990s. She has a background in education — she taught English as a second language — and ran her own small business working as a conflict mediator for 10 years. She lives with her partner of 25 years, Jane Rounthwaite, and has three children from an earlier marriage as well as two grandchildren.
Wynne told reporters her No. 1 priority is to call back the provincial legislature back and start working for Ontario. Wynne, who has promised to recall the House Feb. 19, challenged the opposition to end the rancour that has dogged Queen’s Park in recent years, and work with her to solve the problems Ontarians want fixed.
Wynne said she had a short but fruitful conversation with Conservative leader Tim Hudak after her win, and hopes to talk again Monday. She is also trying to speak with NDP leader Andrea Horwath, whose party holds the balance of power in the minority legislature, about ways to set a new tone.
“The rancour and the viciousness of the legislature can’t continue,” she said. “We have to absolutely work out our disagreements. What I am hoping for is that if we can build relationships among the party leaders and the three caucuses, we will be able to have debate without the poison of that real viciousness.”
Wynne said the province has been hit hard by recent economic downturns: “Our whole manufacturing base, our whole economy, is shifting and so we together have to grapple with that.”
Hudak has spent the past few months hammering the Liberals, saying they are unfit to govern. Several of his MPPs, including NepeanCarleton’s Lisa MacLeod, have said publicly they will not support a Liberal budget and will work to defeat it, something that ultimately depends on the NDP.
For mer Conservative leader John Tory, who was defeated by Wynne in his riding in 2007 to trigger events that led to Tory’s resignation as party leader, thinks the new Liberal leader’s government will last past the spring. He believes Ontarians are fair-minded and want to give Wynne time to prove herself.
“The people of Ontario will say about any new leader, including this one, ‘Give her a chance,’” Tory said. “To me that means not three months or three hours. It means a few months and if you get past the budget and the throne speech, it takes you the better part of a year.”
Wynne now takes over a party that seems to have lost its way, and a government that, after nine years in office, appeared tired, out of ideas and low in the polls. It has been buffeted by scandal and controversy on everything from the Ornge ambulance service to the mishandling of gas plants and prorogation.
There are certainly those who believe that, by taking over a party that has seen its better days, she is setting herself up for failure. But Wynne is certainly not among them: although she acknowledged mistakes have been made, she doesn’t believe the Liberals are damaged.
“I am not going to concede to repairing the brand,” she said. “I am going to build on the brand to evolve that brand.”
She said there could be legislation to improve oversight at the province’s broken air ambulance system and fresh discussions could be held with municipalities to give them more say in the location of green energy projects.
“We are going to be clear to the people of Ontario that we understand where there were missteps and where we need to go forward. We are going to demonstrate to the people of Ontario that we understand.”