Operating on emotion and excitement as she does round after round of interviews following her win at the Liberal Leadership convention, Kathleen Wynne has run smack into political realities at Queen’s Park before she can even call herself Premier.
Tim Hudak and the Conservatives, despite words about “hope” and “optimism,” launched a personal attack ad against Wynne saying she is simply a continuation of Dalton McGuinty.
“I’m going to use every channel I have to sound the warning bells that we can’t keep going in the direction we’re going,” said Hudak as he explained the mixed message.
Andrea Horwath, despite months of positioning herself as the one who wants to make minority work, sandbagged the incoming Premier by asking for a public inquiry into the gas plant scandal as a condition of cooperation in the house.
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Already the Auditor General is investigating the Mississauga gas plant and will issue a report in the Spring and a government committee was digging into the matter before Dalton McGuinty prorogued the house.
“The people of Ontario deserve answers,” Horwath told the media just two days after Wynne secured her come from behind victory.
For Liberals, who watched the Gomery inquiry disembowel Paul Martin while he tried to distance himself from Jean Chretien, the idea of a gas plant inquiry must sound like political suicide.
Unfortunately, the alternative is not much better. Namely watching Minister Chris Bentley (who will be shuffled out of Energy shortly) and Dalton McGuinty hoisted on the petard of legislative contempt for not releasing documents pertaining to the plants, at the same time Wynne desperately wants to carve out a new identity and a new path.
The short term danger for the opposition is a backlash from voters who may want to see what Wynne can do with Ontario’s top job. With an election months away at the earliest, it’s a risk they can afford to take.
For all the talk about cooperation and avoiding an election that no one wants, the rules of politics have not changed with Wynne’s elevation to the Premier’s job. If there’s an opening take it. If conditions are right to win, then start sharpening those wooden stakes for lawn signs.
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