Your Guide to Ontario Politics

I get that politics isn't as interesting to others as it is to me. However, in the past few days there's been some turbulent changes in our government, some that we should all be aware of.

Just a little contextual preamble: Hon. Kathleen Wynne is our very own Ontario Premier, leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario. There are two other major parties in the Ontario legislature, the Progressive Conservatives (PC's) and the New Democratic Party (NDP's). These three parties are also represented as colours; red, blue and orange respectively.

The leader of the NDP Party is Andrea Horwath, who has been in that position since 2009. At the moment, the NDP party have 18 out of 107 seats in the House of Commons, making them the smallest of the three parties.

The leader of the Liberal Party is Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario. Because the Liberals have 58 seats, they have a majority government, meaning that if you add the number of seats the PC's and NDP's have (29+18= 47) it still doesn't surpass the Liberal government. This is useful for when the Liberals want to pass a bill, because even if every person on both of the other two parties oppose it, the bill would be carried through. (e.g: when the Liberals decided all autistic children under the age of four didn't need care and even though all members of both PC and NDP voted against it, and dozens of distraught parents voiced their cries, the Liberals were able to pass the bill because of the majority government.)

The leader of the PC party was Patrick Brown, however on January 24th, 2018, Mr. Brown stepped down from office after being accused of sexually harassing two young women in the past- all just 6 months away from the next election.

" The allegations follow similar storylines — both women were young at the time, with one in high school and one in the first-year university. Both say they were drunk at the time, after being out at a bar with Brown. Both allege that the incidents occurred in Brown’s home, and that he was sober"

Now, just to get this straight, there was no proof of these allegations being true, however this has been suspected for some time and it was almost confirmed based on his speech the night of the 24th. Before I share my opinion, I am not accusing him of sexual misconduct or defending him in any way. I can say, however, that he was never my favourite politician, nor was he for many others.

Personally, my meetings with him were fairly cumbersome. Not to be petty (but yeah, petty), he never said thank you or please, and could barely look pages in the eyes! As pages, we got the chance to meet all prominent figures in Ontario Parliament, including the party leaders. After a long and pleasant discussion with Wynne, we were planning on meeting with Patrick Brown, and having the same experience. However, he took a photo with us, said "See you in Question Period," and walked out the door. (Not to mention his office is in the top of Queens Park which made it a journey to get there, all for a picture.) It's no wonder I never really liked the guy.

Here's the picture, taken after about 40 flights of stairs and just before "See you at question period!" (Also, what a great photo of me in my prime am I right? Oh God.)

Now the question arises: who will be the new PC leader in light of a looming election in June? Well, Doug Ford, brother of ex-mayor late Rob Ford has announced his candidacy (in his mothers basement, but thats besides the point).

If you recall, Doug Ford also ran for mayor of Toronto in the last municipal election, but fell short next to John Tory. Now, Ford has gone head-first into campaign mode in preparations for June.

" Folks, make no mistake about it, the elites of this party, the ones who have shut out the grassroots, do not want me in this race. But I'm here to give a voice to the hard-working taxpayers of this province, people who have been ignored for far too long."

(Says the millionaire, but no, please, save us from the "elites")

So now, who will run this province of ours? Will it be Wynne, who has slowly but surely allowed us to spiral into a certain debt (as one does after being in power for so long) or Doug Ford, who announced his campaign in his mothers basement?

I vote one of us pages should run.

That's all! And make sure that if you're 18 or older you vote on June 7!

Love, Isabela :)

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-pc-ontario-election-leadership-race-1.4508807

https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/01/24/pc-leader-patrick-brown-holds-late-night-press-conference-to-deny-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct.html