On June 2, 2018, just five days before the election, Premier Kathleen Wynne presented a speech saying she knew she would not win, and she is okay with it. Kathleen Wynne has been the Premier since 2013 and is the first female and openly LGBTQ+ Premier of Ontario. Presented here is a short summary of her speech.
Although she says she does not care about herself, Wynne cares about the future of the province. Her take is that she’s worried about handing a “blank cheque” to the NDP or PC. Expanding on this point, she was concerned Doug Ford would have too much of a free hand if elected a majority, referencing the example when he said he would have opened up Greenbelt condo development, until he was called out. She also attacked Ford’s history of berating people based on religion, gender, or sexual orientation. On the other side of the political spectrum, Wynne worries about the NDP’s effect on the Canadian economy. She is worried about the taxes that the party can impose on small businesses, causing unemployment rates to rise and lower job creation, while also promoting strikes, like York University’s, to continue. Due to a lack of faith in either party, a minority would ensure little would get done during either new Premier’s time of office. Thus, Wynne encourages Ontarian’s to vote for the Liberal Party to cause a potential to form this minority government, as a way to “keep the next government in check.”
I see this as a sort of last resort from Wynne. Her general dislike by the rest of the population seems to have hit her, and although she hasn’t technically given up, it’s clear that she’s being realistic about her odds. According to CBC news, as of June 1, 2018, the Liberals are only projected to receive 20.3% of votes, while the Conservatives and NDP are set to receive 36.1% and 37.1% respectively. The probability of winning goes to the Conservative party at 79.3% with a majority government and a 7.5% chance at a minority government. The NDP have a 4.2% chance of winning with a majority, and a 8.2% chance of a minority. The tracker has only predicted the NDP to pass the Liberal vote for polling averages as of the beginning of May, but the two vote counts for the PC and NDP government have only recently started to converge to the same value. However, don’t count the chickens before they hatch; this is similar to the idea that “Trump would never get elected” and look what happened (not saying Ford is as bad as Trump, but I’m speaking more objectively as a “left vs. right” situation). And remember the Green Party could still win theoretically.
Horwath has responded and urged voters to not follow the advice, as it would only lead to a PC majority. This is probably due to the potential “left-wing split.” Doug Ford did not have much of a response, and only said his team has kept its focus on getting their message out. As expected, they disagree.
Is this some weird sort of reverse psychology 5-D chess that Wynne is talking about to get some last minute Liberal votes? Or has she really thrown in the towel? Taking off my tin foil hat, it just makes it clear that this doesn’t change much about who you vote for. It was kind of evident that Wynne wouldn’t receive many votes anyway, and at this point it seems like she’s stating the obvious. So stick to your research and vote where you want. Why has Wynne figured this out now? There was a long-standing trend of people disliking her, a large reason being selling off Hydro One.
This has the potential of being the worst election for the Liberals in Ontario history. If they win fewer than seven seats, this record is broken. Although her plan may cause a left split, it may have just brought more NDP voters. We’ll have to wait until Thursday to find out.
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