WYNNE’S WORLD
Ontario’s new premier is a cheerful optimist who impresses even political opponents with her desire to get along and get things done. But if she can’t convince enough MPPs to like her first budget, she won’t be premier for long. MOHAMMED ADAM studies her
Ontario’s new premier is in the eye of a political storm, but you’d never guess it by talking to her.
For someone in the eye of a political storm that threatens her survival, Ontario’s new premier is remarkably sanguine about her predicament. With Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s scorched-earth policy tearing at her from one side, and NDP leader Andrea Horwath drawing a line in the sand with inflexible budget demands on the other, Kathleen Wynne appears to be living on borrowed time.
Add the constant drumbeat of negative headlines — the National Post recently called her Liberal minority “dead government walking” -- and you can see why some have already tagged Wynne as a latter-day Kim Campbell, the former prime minister who under not terribly dissimilar circumstances plunged the federal Conservatives to their worstever defeat in 1993.
Of course, Wynne is very much aware of her party’s vulnerability.
But talking to her, you’d never guess she is facing such forceful political headwinds. She scoffs at the comparison with Campbell (whom she admires as Canada’s only female prime minister), and with a cheerful optimism pledges that she’ll succeed.
“I never say never and I don’t think I have despair in my nature,” Wynne says in an hour-long interview with the Citizen. “It is the job of a leader to work with people and help them find their aspirations and hope. That is my objective. I am going to succeed.”
Wearing glasses that make her look somewhat bookish at close quarters, Wynne speaks softly, but her disposition is sunny and she comes across as very likable. Throughout the interview, she was unfailingly upbeat, sharing the tidbit that special heritage colours are used to paint the premier’s office, and joining in to tease a photographer there to take pictures for the story.
Those who have known her a long time say one of the qualities that define Wynne is her refusal to countenance failure. They say it is the same attitude that kept her on course in the 2007 election contest against PC leader John Tory that no one thought she could win, not to mention the recent Liberal leadership race.
Principal secretary Andrew Bevan, who has known Wynne for a decade, describes her as a “naturally optimistic person.” Annie Kidder, the executive director of public advocacy group People for Education who first met Wynne 17 years ago, says the premier also knows how to get things done — and is not to be underestimated.
“I’ve seen her go from being a parent activist to school trustee, MPP, minister of education and now premier, and she is somebody who doesn’t sit around thinking how bad things are,” says Kidder.
“She is hopeful in the sense of, ‘There must be a way we can do this.’ She a practical and pragmatic person who understands the deeper reality of how to get things done. She is not a little wallflower.”
Wynne made history last month when she became Ontario’s first female premier as well as Canada’s first openly gay premier. She made it clear, however, that it will be her record as premier and not her sexual orientation that will define her.
In the six weeks she’s been in office, Wynne has not strayed from the core Liberal policies pursued by her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty. On the major issues — the economy and deficit reduction, health care, education and even the much-maligned green energy policy — Wynne has stayed the course, or indicated as much.
But she has also tried to project her own image and style by striking a different, more conciliatory tone, using language
Getting the budget passed will be an enormous feat. But if her Liberals survive that vote, it is hard to see what else can stop Wynne from governing for another year, given that no votes of confidence are likely until the next throne speech, probably in early 2014.
that is more inclusive, and less muscular, assertive or individualistic. And in an acknowledgment of the reality of her minority government, the tone of the throne speech was co-operation and collaboration with the opposition.
The premier also acknowledges she’s still adjusting to the job, and can’t quite believe she’s made it this far.
“I walk into this office and I think, ‘ How did I get here?’ It is a huge privilege. It is very exciting,” she says. “We have huge challenges and I am keenly aware of the responsibility.”
Wynne says two things have surprised her about the job so far: First, she didn’t fully appreciate how central the premier’s office is to everything that goes on in government, and how that imposes a certain discipline on what she says.
“Everything I say is taken as a directive ... and taken very seriously,” she says. “I don’t think I realized that.”
Wynne also says she didn’t fully realize how the demands of the office would constrain her private time. She has often joked about not being able to drive, but says being premier means your time is not really yours to spend as you please.
More broadly, she says, Hudak’s attitude toward her government has surprised and confused her. She gets on well with Hudak outside the legislature, a personal relationship she thought, perhaps naively, would translate into co-operation on issues.
“It is bewildering to me why Hudak would not want to, at least, try to find some common ground,” she says. “It is bewildering to me that he would decide that he is not going to support the throne speech, not support the budget even before he had considered it. I don’t understand that kind of politics.”
Not surprisingly, given the political baggage McGuinty left for Wynne, the PCs have begun to call the Liberal minority the “McGuinty-Wynne government,” instead of the “new Ontario government,” the label preferred by the Liberals. But Wynne is unfazed. She says her goal is to build on what the Liberals have achieved over the past nine years, to create a “fair society” in Ontario in which people have jobs and thrive. And for those who are vulnerable and can’t stand on their own feet, the government must be there to offer a helping hand so they don’t fall through the cracks.
She understands that a sound economy — “the container in which we can create a fair society” — is critical to her goals and political success. And that is why, the premier says, she has linked the creation of a fair society with fiscal responsibility, and is determined to balance the budget and put Ontario’s finances in order.
Wynne says she still hasn’t given up on Hudak, but if he won’t co-operate, there are many Conservatives in Ontario who want fiscal responsibility, and she promises
they will see just that in the budget.
To a large degree, Wynne’s future depends on getting that budget, expected in the second half of April, through a fractious legislature. And without giving too much away, says she expects that to happen.
“It will be a very balanced document, and the middle ground that we occupy will provide opportunities for both the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives to work with us,” she says. “We can agree on things to be done, and I hope we can pass a budget and continue to govern for the next year, into another budget cycle.”
Passing the budget will be a feat of enormous significance. If the government survives that vote, it’s hard to see what else can stop Wynne from governing for at least a year, given no confidence votes are likely before the next throne speech in 2014.
That leaves Horwath with a very serious dilemma. She must decide whether it is in the interest of her party to withhold support for the budget and trigger an election, or use her clout to win concessions on such things as home care, youth unemployment and lower insurance rates, items that make a difference in people’s lives.
Both positions come with advantages and pitfalls.
The longer Wynne stays in office, the more confidence she’ll accrue as she builds a record to run on later. For the opposition, is it better to force an early election while Wynne is still finding her feet and can be put on the defensive on the gas plant closures and other scandals swirling around her from the McGuinty years?
Wynne is bewildered by Hudak’s attitude toward her government. She says she gets along well with the Conservative leader outside the legislature, a personal relationship she believed, perhaps naively, would translate into co-operation on issues.
But if Horwath can push the Liberals to accept her demands, that would cement the NDP’s reputation as a party that gets things done — something they can run on in an election. Besides, with recent polls showing Liberals enjoying something of a revival, the wisdom of an early election is increasingly being questioned.
A number of polls released this month shows a virtual three-way tie, with the Liberals showing significant movement since Wynne became premier. From the low 20s after McGuinty’s resignation last fall, the Liberals are enjoying something of a comeback, with highs of around 30-per-cent support to match the Conservatives and slightly ahead of the NDP.
But University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman says the Liberals should not be deluded into thinking they are out of the woods because of a few good polling numbers. Wiseman says a new leader usually gets a bump in the polls, and Wynne is simply benefiting from early public goodwill.
“Wynne is new, she is not McGuinty, she is a woman, she wants to listen and she is accommodating,” Wiseman says. “People want her to do well.”
Even so, he says, the Liberals remain vulnerable. The gas plant cancellations is a scandal that keeps giving, and with the auditor general’s report expected some time soon, there’s likely to be more bad publicity for the party.
Wynne acknowledges the gas plants remain a black eye for the Liberals, but believes her acknowledgment of the mistakes that were made and the transparency with which she’s attempting to deal with the issue will earn her some public trust.
“I want to demonstrate that I have learned from those things and that we can work to prevent that kind of thing ever happening again,” she says.
Senior Ontario Liberals say they have no illusions that their problems are over, conceding they still have a long way to go to reclaim the confidence of Ontarians. But many believe they made the right choice in picking Wynne as leader, crediting her temperament and vision for their steady progress back from the brink.
“Nobody ever expected the Liberals under whatever leader to tie for first place at this stage,” says Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, an Ottawa MPP. “But people see Premier Wynne as sincere in wanting to make the legislature work. She is not programmed, which is very refreshing compared to other leaders. She is a breath of fresh air.”
Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi, another Ottawa MPP, says the Liberals are making progress because people appreciate a leader who genuinely seeks common ground with the opposition.
“She is a strong and collaborative leader and she has hit the ground running,” Naqvi says. “She is dealing with issues head on, not shying away from them. And even though she is a rookie, it doesn’t feel that way. People feel she is capable.”
Born in 1953 in Richmond Hill, a town just north of Toronto, Wynne got her bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University and then a master’s in linguistics as well as adult education from the University of Toronto.
She is an avid reader who always has two books — one fiction and one non-fiction — on the go. For fiction, she loves mysteries, particularly the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. She likes movies as well, and lately, has been enjoying the Danish political TV series Borgen.
She likes to spend time with her two grandchildren, but her No. 1 passion is distance running. She runs four or five mornings a week, and has completed two marathons and several five- and 10-kilometre runs.
When she was 27, Wynne married Phil Cowperthwaite and had three children with him before she came out in 1990. She went on to live with partner Jane Rounthwaite, whom she first met at Queen’s University, but stayed in touch with over the years. The two were married in 2005, and Rounthwaite has been by Wynne’s side ever since.
Wynne grew up in a family of community activists, from whom she says she learned the virtue of problem-solving. The talk around the dinner table wasn’t so much about politics, she says, as how to get things done when confronted with problems in the community.
Her father, John Wynne, a family doctor, was a member of the Lion’s Club, which organized dances for young people to keep them from getting into trouble. Together with her mother, musician Pat O’Day, they helped establish a youth drop-in centre.
O’Day, who sat on the Social Planning Council, also worked with young people with disabilities and helped establish a choir with disabled youth who travelled the province to raise funds for their activities.
“I lived in a house where if there was a problem, there was a lot of talk about how to solve the problem, and then people taking action,” Wynne says.
She cut her teeth in local education politics, first as a concerned mother who founded a parents’ advocacy group called Metro Parents Network (now the Toronto Parent Network). She then ran for a seat on school board to influence things from the inside.
She remembers a seminal moment when she first ran for the school board in 1994 and faced a vicious homophobic campaign against her. She lost that election by 72 votes but instead of being discouraged, it made her even more determined. She came back in 2000 and won. Wynne was also involved in an unsuccessful battle against municipal amalgamation in Toronto in the mid-1990s.
She first ran for the Liberals in the 2003 election that swept McGuinty to power, and went on to hold three cabinet posts — education, transport and then municipal affairs, housing and aboriginal affairs.
She grew up to admire women’s rights pioneers such as Nellie McClung and Agnes McPhail, as well as men like John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Pierre Trudeau — “people who had a hopeful view of what the world can be.” Those are the kinds of shoes she wants to walk in.
“When I come to work in the morning, the thing that’s on my mind — top priority — is making sure we develop a good strong plan to grow the economy and provide jobs because without that, we can’t create the fair society I am so keen on,” she says.