Steven Del Duca is plotting the Ontario Liberals’ big comeback

iPolitics.ca
Dec. 18

The second it’s “safe, legal, and responsible,” Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca says he’ll be back on the open road, touring the province he hopes to lead after the next provincial election in the spring of 2022.

After a contentious fall legislative session that coincided with Ontario’ second wave of COVID-19 cases, iPolitics caught up with Del Duca to talk about his priorities for the upcoming year, and how the rookie Liberal leader plans to take on Premier Doug Ford in just over a year’s time.

Del Duca, who won his party’s top job as the pandemic hit Canada last spring, will undoubtedly face an uphill battle to win a majority at Queen’s Park. His party was reduced to just seven seats after Ford’s sweeping electoral victory in 2018. Still, Del Duca has reasons to be optimistic.

In July, the Liberal Party of Ontario dropped its membership fee, making it free to join. Since then, Del Duca said party membership has nearly doubled, from 37,000 to around 73,500. Del Duca also hopes to generate new enthusiasm by giving regular party members a bigger role in the process of developing the platform, which begins early next year.

“When I campaigned for leader, I talked an awful lot to the party membership about the need to really give the rank and file of our party a chance to weigh in,” Del Duca said. “And not in a cosmetic way, or a pro forma way, but to genuinely tap into the expertise that we have within our party membership.”

The Liberals have also had modest success in byelections since 2018, retaining two seats and adding another to their caucus total, which is now at eight members. This would have allowed them to regain official party status in the legislature -- which they lost after dipping below the previous threshold of eight seats in 2018 -- if Ford hadn’t raised that threshold to 12 after coming to power.

Looking ahead, Del Duca has his eye on a lot more than just official party status. Before the end of next year, the party will wrap up candidate nominations for the 2022 election, a process of vetting and confirming more than 100 candidates.

With around 20 candidates recruited so far, Del Duca says 50 per cent are women, and between 55 and 60 per cent are people of colour. The party has also nominated three candidates under the age of 30.

“We are moving forward aggressively in that direction,” he said. “We’re going to continue (doing) really terrific candidate searches, and get a slate of candidates in front of the people of Ontario who are true local champions.”

But before challenging the premier in the next election, Del Duca will have to successfully lead his party through the end of the pandemic. As Ontario reports record-high case numbers heading into the holiday season, the crisis is on track to bleed into next year.

While Del Duca hailed the arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Canada, he said he’s “nervous” about the rollout, given the Ford government’s handling of the surge in cases this fall and winter.

“I think, very early on in the second wave, the government and the premier lost control,” Del Duca said. “People have really been suffering, even more than they would have otherwise … had the government not lost control.”

Yesterday, iPolitics reported that opposition leaders, including Del Duca, had been shut out of Ontario’s vaccine-distribution rollout, despite a successful Liberal motion in the legislature last week calling for collaboration.

“I do sincerely hope that Doug Ford reaches out, keeps all three of the opposition leaders informed of what’s happening, (and) invites us into that conversation,” Del Duca said, adding he’d be happy to put partisanship aside to take a “team Ontario approach.”

As for what happens after the pandemic, Del Duca said he’s ready to pick up where he left off after winning the Liberal leadership last spring, and start campaigning for the job of premier.

“I think (being on the road) is the most important thing that, as a leader, I can do,” Del Duca said. “It’s finding a way to introduce myself and establish that trust with the people in this province.”