Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath made that trite statement to the news media at Queen’s Park yesterday. It points out why Andrea is not Premier of Ontario today. And if she is sincerely trying to shore up the failing Liberal regime in Ontario to prevent an election, her own party will soon have the knives out for her.
If Andrea was really Machiavellian—which she is not—you would think that she was promoting MPP Kathleen Wynne for leadership of the Liberals. With the Liberal leadership convention less than two weeks away, the opposition leaders at Queen’s Park take every shot at publicity the media will give them. And Andrea must know how much easier it would be for her to defeat Wynne in an election than it would be to take on Sandra Pupatello as Liberal leader.
Pupatello is everything that Horwath is not. Pupatello not only looks good but she is smart, fiscally credible and can run rings around Conservative leader Tiny Tim Hudak. With Wynne as Liberal leader, Horwath could sit back in an election, let Timmy do all the bigotry things, play nice and reap the reward of the Premier’s job. Mind you, Horwath would make a worse Premier than McGuinty—if you could imagine it.
Frankly, any politico who believes all adherents to a political party should think or act alike is guilty of wishful thinking. The real strength of any political party is its ability to encompass a wide range of political philosophies and ideals. A political party without some dissension and cross talk will eventually die of boredom. It is the party that can welcome dialogue and ideas, that has a future.
And what the future holds for a Liberal Party of Ontario led by Sandra Pupatello, is hard to say. You have to admit that the lady has bombast but then so did Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. What both of them have, in spades, is self-confidence, arrogance, fiscal conservatism and a mind of their own. Where that will take a Premier Sandra Pupatello, nobody knows.
Frankly, the Liberal Party in Ontario would be far better off with Gerard Kennedy at the helm. He has promised to return democracy to the party and that is worth a great deal. He also knows and understands the mentality of the New Democrats and could work a good deal with Andrea Horwath. He is certainly the only candidate who has a chance of healing the rift with the school teachers.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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