Ontario Liberal leadership: Kathleen Wynne victory a ‘democratic milestone’
Kathleen Wynne will be the first female premier of Ontario, and her win gives Canada six female provincial and territorial leaders in total.
The Issue: When Kathleen Wynne won the Ontario Liberal Party leadership, she inspired plaudits for a well-run campaign — as well as some murmurs about what backroom manoeuvring may have helped clinch her victory over another front-runner, Sandra Pupatello. The fact that the race ended with two female candidates duking it out for the lead, however, symbolized something greater — the breaking of a significant glass ceiling in Canadian politics. Wynne will be the first female premier of Ontario, and her win gives Canada six female provincial and territorial leaders in total.
Former prime minister Kim Campbell: “As someone who remains disappointed, 20 years on, that I’ve still been the only female prime minister, rather than just the first one, I celebrate this important democratic milestone. Half a dozen female premiers reinforces the message that women belong in politics. Their visibility will change the landscape of Canadian politics and our sense of what is ‘normal’ in public life. But having six female premiers should not make us prematurely complacent. They are still only the tip of an iceberg, the main body of which (75 per cent at all levels of political representation) is unfortunately still overwhelmingly male.”
Margaret Wente, Globe and Mail: “Two tough, smart women dominated Ontario’s Liberal leadership race. . . . Do women do politics differently? That depends. If you’re the only woman in the room (Margaret Thatcher, Sheila Copps), you’ve got to out-macho the men if you want to get ahead. Adding more women to a group tends to cut down on the towel-snapping and elevate the tone.”
Tim Harper, Toronto Star: “If women politicians practice the craft so differently, bring a softer focus, why, when you do a Google search on the Liberal leadership pre-convention front-runner ‘Sandra Pupatello’ and ‘pit bull,’ do you stop counting the references from fatigue at 38 hits? . . . The women who have risen to the top of their craft were among the toughest persons of either gender I have ever encountered . . . You want to know what it’s like to cross Hillary Clinton? Ask Republican Ron Johnson, who pushed her a little too hard last week at Congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack on the U.S. consulate.”
Wynne, who is gay, speaking to the leadership convention about whether her sexual orientation has any relevance in today’s political climate: “Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You’ve all heard that question . . . Not surprisingly, I have an answer to that question . . . I do not believe that the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, sexual orientation, colour or religion. I don’t believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts . . . They judge us on our merits.”
Sandra Pupatello, who told the Globe this week that candidate Eric Hoskins “double-crossed” her in backing Wynne: “He did tell me he would support me. He told me he would. He told me in his own home with his wife . . . He changed his mind. I don’t know when. Who knows what happened on the floor?”
Eric Hoskins, responding via email to the Globe: “I have the greatest respect for Sandra . . . But, as I have said already, there was no deal between us.”
Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen: “In the end, there’s no great mystery behind Kathleen Wynne’s victory. Sure, political pundits and talking heads love to pontificate on the backroom deals and secret strategic alliances that fuel so much of the chatter that surrounds a political convention. And those things do matter to some extent. But the key factors responsible for vaulting Wynne into the Ontario Liberal party’s top spot — and the premiership sometime in the next week or two — can be boiled down to two simple truths: a superbly run campaign and a genuinely appealing candidate.”
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