PC landslide ends nearly two decades of Liberal rule in Ontario
McLean to resign as Liberal leader
June 3, 2022
Mike Lincoln goes impromptu at an election rally (photo: M. Myers)
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario won a landslide victory last night to end nearly two decades of Liberal Party rule in Canada's most populous province.
With nearly every vote having been tallied, the Progressive Conservatives (PC) have been declared the winner of 83 seats, a commanding majority of 21 for the next legislative assembly. Premier Karen McLean's Liberals fell to only 13 seats, while the formerly third-place New Democratic Party gained 17 seats from their previous showing, giving them a total of 27 seats and making them the province's next Official Opposition. Green Party leader David Howard retained his seat in Guelph, which he had first won four years ago.
PC leader and premier-designate Mike Lincoln pledged that a "new era of fiscally responsible and transparent government" had begun in Ontario, and that the provincial government would "return to working on behalf of Ontarians, not on behalf of entrenched interests."
McLean, now the last of a Liberal dynasty that lasted nearly two decades after the party took power in 2003, announced that she would retire as Liberal Party leader and that she would resign from her seat in Ottawa Centre upon the election of her successor.
The first woman to lead Ontario, McLean became the face of a Liberal government that, to its critics, had become out-of-touch and increasingly dominated by scandals. The ballooning price tag of the projected repair and upgrade costs of Hydro One, the province's electrical utility, emerged as a salient issue during the last assembly, and by the time the writs were dropped, most Liberals privately admitted that the party would not form the next government.
In a concession speech, McLean thanked supporters and "the people of Ontario, for making these the six most challenging and rewarding years of my career." She touted her government's plan of universal pharmaceutical coverage for children, minimum wage increases and efforts to expand school sex education curriculums to cover gender identity.
Federal implications
Prime Minister Kate Sansellfort called Lincoln last night to privately offer her congratulations and her office issued a statement saying she "looked forward to working with [Lincoln] on issues that effect Ontarians."
With the federal Conservatives still in the midst of a campaign to choose a permanent successor to former prime minister Leslie Van Merhalls, interim party leader Bruce Chapchuk said the result was a "clear call from Ontarians that they are fed up with the type of tax-heavy, free-spending politics that Kate Sansellfort advocates."
Sansellfort, Chapchuk and NDP leader James Addison all congratulated Ontario NDP leader Laura Wong on becoming the first visible minority to become leader of the opposition (Wong's father immigrated from China).
