Kathleen Wynnes support for Justin Trudeau may now be a liability: Walkom
Beset by scandal, the Ontario premier is a reminder of how tricky the Liberals can be.
Since the beginning of this federal election campaign, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne has been an unabashed booster of Justin Trudeau.
Provincial premiers usually hold their partisan fire during federal contests. They know they will ultimately have to work with whoever forms government in Ottawa.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, for instance, has been careful to keep her distance from fellow New Democrat and would-be prime minister Tom Mulcair.
Wynne has shown no such restraint. In an effort to get Trudeaus Liberals elected, she has publicly taken on both Mulcair and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Appearing beside Trudeau at a Toronto rally last month, the Ontario Liberal premier was particularly hard on the NDP leader, calling his election platform incomplete, unworkable and impossible.
Only Trudeau, she said, deserved to become prime minister.
Trudeaus campaign team, it seems, was happy to have her help.
But now it is not clear whether Wynnes very public support is an asset or liability for the federal Liberal leader.
The police decision to charge Liberal bagman Gerry Lougheed in the Sudbury byelection affair is only the latest problem besetting the Ontario premier.
Lougheed faces bribery charges for his alleged attempt to persuade a would-be provincial Liberal nominee in the February byelection to gracefully step aside in favour of a star candidate that Wynne preferred.
On its own, the Sudbury scandal might not matter that much. Certainly it didnt matter to the voters of Sudbury last February when, in spite of the widely aired allegations, they handily elected Wynnes choice.
But this weeks news that formal charges have been laid comes at a time when the premiers stock is already falling in Ontario.
A Forum Research poll last month put Wynnes Liberals in third place in the province, below both the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP.
Her approval ratings have dropped to about 30 per cent.
In particular, the premier is unpopular for her surprise decision to privatize Hydro One, Ontarios publicly owned electricity transmission monopoly.
At one level, Wynne has acted as an exemplar to Trudeau.
His decision to focus on transit and public-works spending, as well as his strategy of trying to outflank the NDP from the left, are borrowed from Wynnes successful 2014 Ontario election campaign.
But her decision to privatize Hydro One is a reminder of how flexible some might say duplicitous Liberals can be once they gain power.
Nowhere in her 2014 campaign did Wynne talk of privatizing this major Crown corporation. That decision was announced only after she had safely won a majority government. If, in the 2014 campaign, she had said she planned to sell off one of the provinces crown jewels and award its new CEO a handsome pay packet that could reach $4 million annually she may not have done quite so well.
No political party is pure. Former Conservative leader Brian Mulroney famously declared universal programs a sacred trust, only to reverse himself upon winning power.
Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae promised public auto insurance but backed away from the pledge once in office.
But the Liberals are famous for their spectacular U-turns.
In the 1974 election campaign, Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau relentlessly mocked the idea of wage and price controls only to impose them a year after he won.
In 1995, Jean Chrétiens government gutted the very welfare and unemployment insurance schemes that previous Liberal regimes had instituted.
Like Wynne with Hydro One, this followed an election two years earlier in which the Chrétien Liberals gave voters no hint that they had any of this in mind.
According to the latest polls, Trudeaus Liberals and Harpers Conservatives are neck and neck in Ontario, with Mulcairs NDP stuck in third place.
Will Wynnes vocal support help Trudeau take an unambiguous lead in this province? If voters think of her as the feisty woman willing to invest in public transit, perhaps it will.
If, however, she reminds them of how tricky the Liberals can be, Trudeau might prefer that she keep her mouth shut.
