“In 2003 Kathleen Wynne was told she would never be able to defeat Progressive Conservative cabinet minister David Turnbull,” Robert Fisher wrote in a CBC online news article early this morning after the Ontario liberal leader won yesterday’s provincial election. Fisher continued, ‘She did. In 2007, she heard the same thing when then-Progressive Conservative leader John Tory decided he’d run against her in Toronto’s Don Valley West riding. But, she defeated him. In 2011, Wynne faced another high-profile Conservative and despite the talk she was vulnerable, she defeated her too. So when former premier Dalton McGuinty stepped down, many Liberals approached Wynne, asking her to consider a run for the leadership of the party. She did consider it and she ran, even though there were Liberals who privately worried that, while they liked the idea of a female leader, she could win the leadership but not the province in a general election because she is a lesbian. With an open and impassioned convention speech, Wynne became Liberal leader — and last night, Ontario’s first elected female premier. Her choice to go public on what could have easily remained a private issue has now ended that debate. The election result has also ended the debate over the other debate — the televised one — and Wynne’s uneven performance. It seems to say: you can lose the leaders debate but win the election.” Read the full article here.
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