Guide to new Ontario Premier’s likely cabinet picks

Comparing the 17-minister, final leadership McGuinty cabinet to the LIB caucus shows that the cabinet was about twice as likely as the caucus to contain an MPP elected prior to 2003, about as likely as the caucus to contain an MPP elected in 2003, and about half as likely as the caucus to contain an MPP elected since 2003. 

 

Veteran ministers, especially those belonging to the "Class of 2003" have clearly been in a position to call many of the shots in the former cabinet.  We suppose that the Premier-elect will want to loosen the stifling age-composition grip referred to above. 

Wynne will confront serious space problems in accommodating some of her most competent senior colleagues — though it helps that Chris Bentley and Dwight Duncan plan to leave their seats, and others will likely consider retirement.  The choice will be much easier with those who played a central supportive role in ensuring victory for the throng wearing the “Wynne.Win” scarves — such as Health minister Deb Matthews and Agriculture minister Ted McMeekin.  Having made a very strong contribution to the Wynne campaign in fundraising and more, the capable David Zimmer finally deserves the promotion to cabinet that Team McGuinty stupidly denied him since 2003.  

The backing Wynne received from four of the leadership candidates makes it necessary to seat them in the cabinet.  Glen Murray came over first and worked hard on the campaign; Dr Eric Hoskins’s march to join Wynne delivered crucial convention momentum; Charles Sousa brought a key package of delegate support, all but sealing the win (and he could handle the portfolio being vacated by Dwight Duncan); and Gerard Kennedy was slow to bring over his loyal backers, having caucused to let them have their democratic say.  (Of course, Kennedy has no secure riding base but his intelligence and experience can surely be put to good use outside the Legislature.) 
 
The leadership claim of Harinder Takhar is far more problematic.  The new leader’s sexual orientation was vocally derided by many of Takhar’s delegates.  This cannot appropriately be resolved by assigning an important-sounding role to him.
 
Key ministerial choices will be made by Wynne herself, but her Transition Team is already hard at work on the multitude of other essential tasks needed to quickly ramp up the new government.  Chaired by former North Bay MPP and Minister Monique Smith, it includes past Environment minister and agriculture and rural affairs point-man John Wilkinson, organizational ace Tom Allison and former Attorney General Michael Bryant — a clear message that Kathleen Wynne was not kidding in sundry efforts to distance herself from the course followed by the McGuinty government.

 

 IQP suggested in its January 24 issue that the choice of delegates at the Ontario LIB leadership convention was between a ballot question which proposed speedy reopening of the Legislature., reaching out to the opposition parties and trying to make minority government work — and another decidedly more combative approach, proposing to extend prorogation, bring the PCs and NDP to their knees and ramp up a to general election if there’s any back-talk.  We did not know which course would prove more appealing, but when Sandra Pupatello started to re-align her position with that of Kathleen Wynne, it was apparent that the polls showing the Liberals behind the NDP and the PCs were very much on the delegates’ minds.