| The Leaders |
OTTAWA — Standing before a sea of supporters, Dalton McGuinty strode to the podium as the returning premier of Ontario, but a humbled leader of Canada's most populous province.
The Liberal leader's quest for another majority mandate fell short by one seat Thursday, leaving him at the helm of Ontario's first minority government in 26 years.
Early Friday morning, the Liberals had 53 seats, while the Progressive Conservatives had 37 and the NDP had 17, the most seats that party has held in 16 years.
Had McGuinty, a father of four adult children, won a third consecutive majority, he would have been the first premier in 50 years to perform the feat in Ontario.
Speaking to supporters in Ottawa, McGuinty said that while liberalism "was alive and well" in Ontario, the governing party should be humbled by the rebuke from the province's electors.
"While we may not know for several days what the final results will be in several ridings," McGuinty said, before being interrupted by chants of "four more years" from supporters, "We have in fact succeeded in our goal of electing an experienced Liberal government."
Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty voted Thursday 6th Oct. 2011 |
McGuinty was easily re-elected in his Ottawa South riding and the other major party leaders also claimed their seats.
Even with the win, it's a long fall for the Liberals after losing 17 seats Thursday. When the writ was dropped, the Liberals held 70 seats, the Conservatives 25 and the NDP 10 while two seats were vacant.
"Ontarians told us, 'We are placing our trust in you, but we expect you to work even harder,' " McGuinty said about the results.
The win was widely expected to be a narrow one. On Wednesday, political analysts predicted the election would come down to the wire; Liberals and Progressive Conservatives were neck-and-neck in a race that was seen, at first, to be a sure win for the PCs.
The last time Ontario had a minority government was in 1985 when the Liberals ended the Progressive Conservatives 42-year rule with the help of Bob Rae's NDP.
Conservative leader Tim Hudak's front-runner campaign proved to be strong competition for the incumbent McGuinty, who appeared sluggish on the month-long trail, but rebounded near the end.
"It's been a long campaign, a hard-fought campaign, and although the results is not the one we hoped for . . . we do accept it," said Hudak in front of a cheering crowd at the wrap-up party in Niagara Falls, Ont.
Hudak said it's clear Ontarians sent a strong message that they want a "change in direction."
"And friends, it's very clear that the people in Ontario have put Dalton McGuinty on a much shorter leash," said Hudak, adding the 12 extra seats won Thursday was more than the party has seen in the past 10 years.
NDP wild card contender Andrea Horwath, the party's provincial leader, ran a tight campaign and could hold a balance of power in a minority government. Her campaign boosted the party's popularity to a level not been seen since the Rae era of the early 1990s.
During her last day on the campaign trail, Horwath encouraged voters to look West and follow Manitoba's electorate that elected a fourth consecutive NDP government.
On Thursday, Horwath told supporters the provincial NDP is "just getting started" after winning seven more seats in the legislature.
"Instead of voting for the same old solutions, you voted for change," said the NDP leader who called herself a "fighter."
"Tonight, friends, we are just getting started," she said, capping off her speech.
Critics said this was Hudak's election to lose, pointing out that his platform was not distinctly different from the ruling Liberals.
Across the board, all three party platforms were fairly similar.
For instance, the Grits and Tories promised to reduce corporate tax rates by 10 per cent, while the NDP said it would crank it to 14 per cent. Liberals and PCs vowed to create 60,000 new undergraduate spaces in post-secondary institutions and all three promised to spend at least $6 billion on health care during their four-year term.
The NDP touted their policy proposals as the cheapest and best to carry the province through a recession and some predicted their message would resonate with voters, especially following the recent unprecedented victory the federal NDP party garnered under late leader Jack Layton.
However, despite Horwath's polished persona, her "Buy Ontario" platform — which pledged to scrap a $120-million rail refurbishment deal signed by the Liberals in Quebec in an effort to keep jobs in Ontario — was slammed by critics as being economically unsound.
But experts said this election was not about platforms, but character.
"Hudak ran a traditional front-runner's campaign just like Stephen Harper did in the federal election. He had his lines down and projected them well, but toward the end . . . he began to appear robotic," said Nelson Wiseman, political science professor at the University of Toronto.
Hudak's reference to immigrants as "foreigners" and recent party ads — attacked by some as homophobic — slamming the province's sex-ed curriculum sparked some contention, but were mere hiccups on the almost blunder-free campaign trail.
Though McGuinty doesn't convey a warm personality, he appeared more "authentic and genuine" in this campaign and has grown more comfortable in the spotlight than when he first entered the political arena in 1999 and lost, said Wiseman.
During McGuinty's term, the introduction of a harmonized sales tax and a scandal at the eHealth Ontario agency over no-bid contracts have hurt his popularity, but he fended off an initially very strong challenge from Hudak.
"(McGuinty) was looking fairly out of it a month or two ago, but the Liberals knew what they were doing, they did have a plan and it's worked pretty good for them," said Jonathan Malloy, political science professor at Carleton University.
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