Celebrating Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s First Woman Premiere

Kathleen Wynn celebrates her WIN this 12th day of JUNE 2014.

Brava Kathleen!

Kathleen O’Day Wynne (born May 21, 1953) is a politician in Ontario, the 25th and current Premier of Ontario and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Don Valley West for the Liberal Party. She is the first premier in Canada to be openly gay and the first female premier of Ontario.

She was Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Aboriginal Affairs until resigning to run as a leadership candidate.

Kathleen Wynne was born in Toronto to Dr. John B. Wynne and Patsy O’Day, a British subject musician who grew up in the Bahamas before immigrating to Canada.

Wynne grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Queen’s University and a Master of Arts degree in linguistics from the University of Toronto. She achieved a Master of Education degree in adult education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto). She was a member of the discipline committee of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists from 1997 to 2000.

Wynne served as president of the Toronto Institute of Human Relations. In 1996, she helped found Citizens for Local Democracy, which opposed the efforts of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government to amalgamate the City of Toronto. She also founded the Metro Parent Network (now the Toronto Parent Network) which supports improvements in the province’s public education system, and has participated in numerous other community endeavours. Wynne helped found MAD for Dancing, a community fundraising group that has donated over $50,000 to organizations that support gay and lesbian youth.

JUNE 2014

Message from Kathleen Wynne

On June 12, the people of Ontario will have a choice.

They will have a choice between the balanced and realistic approach of a Liberal government that will create jobs and nurture our economic recovery, and others who would put that recovery in danger with radical schemes and reckless choices.

Immediately prior to this election, on May 1, we presented our 2014 Budget, Building Opportunity, Securing Our Future. Our 10-year plan for the economy focuses on investing in people, building modern infrastructure and supporting a dynamic and innovative business climate. It lays out a plan to balance the budget by 2017-2018, while making strategic and fully costed investments in key public services and to help grow the economy.

Regrettably, the opposition parties chose to reject our Budget and force an election. If re-elected, a Liberal government will re-introduce and implement the measures in the 2014 Budget.

Our Plan

This plan outlines our commitments in the areas of:

• Jobs and the economy
• A new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan
• Building the next generation of infrastructure
• Helping Ontario families with the cost of living
• Building the next generation of education and child care
• Access to the right health care, at the right time, in the right place
• Clean, sustainable and liveable communities
• Making government work for Ontarians
• The investments in this plan do not incur any additional costs. They are fully accounted for in the 2014 Budget.

The Choice

The decisions that are made by the next Government of Ontario will make a huge difference in people’s lives. As Liberals, we have a clear vision, a sense of purpose, and a comprehensive plan. Across Ontario, we have much to be optimistic about, but we must be vigilant. We have to safeguard the advances we’ve made and not put those at risk. We cannot take anything for granted.

I’ve been Premier for a little more than a year. I’m still a new face to many Ontarians. But I want you to know this about me: I believe there is only one good reason to enter politics, and that is to help people. And you do that by making government a force for good in people’s lives, a positive force, a progressive force, helping to create jobs, helping our kids get the best education and putting in place the conditions to help people and businesses thrive.

We choose to lead. A Liberal government would choose a different path than the opposition parties. We will create jobs and grow our economy, build modern transit and transportation infrastructure and help Ontarians with their retirement. We will also stand up to the federal government and fight for Ontario’s interests.

The time to lead is now.

By making the right choices, we can make a positive difference in the lives of Ontarians.

This is our chance.

This is the choice.

Kathleen Wynne
Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party

Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals will form a majority government, making history in the province and proving Ontario is willing to give her left-of-centre, scandal-plagued party another chance.

The Liberal party creeped past the 54 seat needed to claim a majority, scoring 59 of them as of about 11:45 pm., and holding 38.4% of the popular vote. This was leaps and bounds ahead of Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives, which elected only 27 seats and 31.2% of the vote — a gap far wider than predicted in public opinion polls in the last days of a campaign characterized as nasty and polarized. The NDP elected 21 representatives with 24.0% of the vote.

The stunning victory for Ms. Wynne’s Liberals is a vote of confidence for a party that has moved left of centre and baited the NDP with a socially progressive budget in order to hold onto power.

Live results: A riding-by-riding breakdown of the vote

“I am so proud to be standing in front of you as the first woman elected in this province,” she told a crowd of whooping supporters, who often interrupted her talk to chant her name. “This is a beautiful, inclusive place to live in, Ontario. And I want us every single day to remember that.”

This is a province, she said, “where anyone can be the premier.”

Ontarians “do not hold prejudice in their hearts,” she said, and the province is committed to inclusiveness, and “we have so proven that tonight.”

Ms. Wynne coaxed her partner, Jane Rounthwaite, on stage to share in her victory.

She then welcomed her core team of supporters, friends and family on stage for celebratory hugs. They all hoisted their arms in the air in victory.

It’s the first time Ontarians have elected a gay, female premier. Ms. Wynne succeeded Dalton McGuinty at a party leadership convention, elected by peers but not by Ontarians at large. She also inherited his 11 years of baggage — most prominent among them, the gas plant scandal estimated to cost taxpayers $1.1 billion — but Ontarians appeared to have accepted her apologies on her party’s behalf, and warmed to her promise of a new future.

Her warnings against a slash-and-burn conservative government, which would bleed public sector jobs in order to help stimulate the economy, also appear to have resonated, and the Liberals’ attempt to claim longtime NDP-held ridings in Toronto made the races there neck and neck battles.

In reacting to his party’s defeat, Mr. Hudak announced he will step down as leader of the PC party and allow a new leader to take the reins in the next election.

“We did not receive the results we wanted,” he said, calling the campaign “hard fought” and positive on the Pcs part in attempting to deliver “hope and change.”

But Ms. Wynne will “have the opportunity to deliver the change Ontario so clearly needs,” he said. “Nobody should take this result as an endorement of the status quo. She ail be held accountable if she does not deliver on that change.”
He said his party (Mr. Hudak was re-elected in his riding of Niagara-Glenbrook) and will continue to fight for private jobs creation.

The Liberals claimed the contested riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore where former Toronto councilor Doug Holyday ran against another former councilor Peter Milczyn and lost. The longtime NDP riding of Trinity-Spadina also leaned heavily towards the Liberals with half the polls reporting, signaling a possible ouster for Rosario Marchese.

The Liberals also won the bellwether riding of Kitchener-Centre, which the PCs fought hard to try to win back.

The Liberals ran on a socially progressive campaign, promising significant investment in infrastructure and job creation, as well as the development of an Ontario pension plan that would help families save for their futures.

In the last legislative session the Liberals held 48 seats, the Progressive Conservatives had 37 and the NDP held 21 while one seat was vacant.

” … with the name WYNNE – how can she LOSE? “