By Stephen Vance, Editor
Her party weathered a storm of scandals and suspected scandals for months, they endured the shadow of a less than beloved former Premier, and yet in a somewhat stunning turn of events, Kathleen Wynne becomes Ontario’s first elected female Premier, and her Liberal party will form a majority government, ending a tumultuous period of minority government bickering and strategic manoeuvring.
While I’m not one to get worked up about governments “losing” a million or billion here and there – what multi-billion dollar corporation doesn’t lose a billion dollars every now and then? – I am concerned about whether Wynne has truly cleaned the Liberal house of scandal-prone members.
Wynne promised voters that the scandal-plagued Liberal government is a thing of the past, she has laid down the law, and we won’t see any repeat performances. If true, then Wynne certainly deserves a chance to prove herself. It must be frustrating after-all living in the shadows of other people’s mistakes (or at least other people’s mistakes as far as we know at the moment).
After the victory adrenaline has faded, Wynne and her government shouldn’t be too excited just yet.
Yes, they won enough seats to form a majority government, but with just 38 percent of the popular vote, and barely more than 50 percent voter turnout, she doesn’t exactly have an overwhelming mandate from the electorate. I suspect that the Liberal gains at the cost of the Conservatives in this election were in large part due to a fear of the Tea Party-style policies that were being floated by PC Leader Tim Hudak. We’ve seen what has happened to the south of us with such policies – Wisconsin anyone?
Kathleen Wynne claims to have taken care of business to ensure no more scandals. She had better hope so, because while she may have a majority, and she may have four years ahead, the public will have her and her party on a very short leash, and understandably so given the antics of her predecessor.
Should another major scandal arise, Wynne and her government will have a well-earned rough ride over the next four years, and will most certainly be ousted in the next election.
So let’s set the gas plant scandal aside. The gas plant fiasco has been a black stain on Ontario politics, and its political capital has run out. A billion dollars is a lot of money, there’s no doubt about it, but Ontario pays roughly $11 billion to service its net debt of roughly $270 billion. A billion lost by some incompetent, or shady politicians is a concern, but a relatively minor one when put in perspective.
It’s fair to give Wynne and her party a chance to govern with a majority, but it is also fair to hold this government to a particularly high standard given past transgressions, and the promises that corrective action has been taken to prevent similar scandals in the future.
