Kathleen Wynne, the Liberal premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, made a bold move yesterday, proroguing the Ontario Legislature.
The province, once the manufacturing powerhouse of Canada, is facing an election on June 7th, so Wynne is being accused of attempting to wipe the slate clean beforehand.
Accused of using the Throne Speech to launch her election campaign, she addressed those charges today:
“This throne speech is about making it clear we recognise peoples’ stress and anxiety and that our government is making deliberate choices to invest in the care and the services that the people of this province rely on,” Wynne said.
“All of us know someone in need of more support and better care.” she said.
The charges are not much of a surprise considering Wynne is leading a party that’s been in power for 15 years in the province, and she inherited some thankless issues when she replaced former leader Dalton McGuinty.
It is widely acknowledged she will have an uphill battle to be re-elected.
Ford stands at the podium after being named as the newly elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives at the delayed Ontario PC Leadership announcement in Markham, Ontario on March 10, 2018. (Chris Young/CP)
Meanwhile, her main opponent is the newly chosen leader of the Progressive Conservative party, Doug Ford.
He just emerged from a leadership campaign that was prompted by sexual misconduct charges against the former leader of the party, Patrick Brown.
All of the issues around Brown’s alleged behaviour became a sideshow, that culminated when Brown, who had vehemently protested his innocence, eventually conceded and vowed to clear his name out of the spotlight.
Doug Ford is the older brother of Toronto’s notorious former mayor, Rob Ford, who died in 2016.
Doug Ford has been enjoying the honeymoon of his new position this past week. His political experience, however, is limited to a four-year term as a city councillor in Toronto, from 2010 to 2014, while his brother was mayor.
Their father, Doug Ford Sr. was a member of the Ontario legislature from 1995 to 1999.
The Wynne government’s plans for the new session will be outlined by Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor in what’s knowns as the Speech from the Throne, on Monday March 19, 2018 at 12:00 p.m
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