Congratulations to our cousins in the Ontario Liberal Party in Canada who, overnight, have won a remarkable fourth term of provincial government and, at the same time, have made history with leader Kathleen Wynne becoming the first elected LGBT Head of Government in the Commonwealth!
Going into the election, the Liberals had been in a period of minority government and Wynne had taken over-a year ago from the by-then unpopular Premier Dalton McGuinty.
The party has been in Government in Ontario since 2003 and some pundits had predicted that the opposition Progressive Conservatives (I know, what an oxymoron, right?) would return to Government for the first time in over a decade…but Wynne and her team had other ideas!
They’ve proven that Liberals can renew in Government if they have the courage to be true to their values and, dare I say it, replace a leader who has become deeply unpopular.
In the new provincial parliament the Liberals will now have an overall majority, their first since 2011, with 59 seats (up 11) 38.56%, with the PCs on 27 (-10) 31.27% and the NDP remaining on 21, 23.82%.
The third party supposedly left-wing NDP forced the election by withdrawing its confidence and supply for the minority Liberal Government’s budget which they said was ‘too left-wing.’
So, the NDP are a third-party with traditionally centre-left support who moved to the centre-right and it got them precisely no where.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Whereas the Liberals put forward to the electorate a vision of how they were going to continue to strive for a fairer society and were re-elected in numbers.
The Grits showed real grit and it paid off!
Now, strictly speaking, the national Liberal Party of Canada is a separate party to the provincial one but this result certainly augurs well for Justin Trudeau and his team in Ottawa.
His caucus are currently the third party in Parliament but, amazing as it might sound to us in Britain, a third party leapfrogging the official opposition to become the Government in an election in Canada is far from impossible!
So, best wishes Justin for when the General Election is called!
Back, finally, to Kathleen Wynne. Becoming the first elected LGBT Head of Government in the Commonwealth is another wonderful, shimmering step forward in the ongoing global fight for full equality. Of course she won the election on merit and based on her character and record but, nonetheless, this is another glorious moment in the history of the LGBT community.
It’s a great day.
* Mathew Hulbert is a Borough and Parish Councillor in Leicestershire and his Council’s Children and Young People’s Champion.