Trudeau triumph gives Ontario ‘real federal partner,’ Wynne says

Premier Kathleen Wynne welcomed a “new tone” in Ottawa, saying the Liberal win is good for Ontario.

Thestar.com
Oct. 20, 2015
By Robert Benzie

Premier Kathleen Wynne doubled down on red to win - and her high-stakes gamble paid off.

Wynne bet the farm on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau toppling her hated foe Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In an unprecedented intervention for an Ontario premier, she took the risk of campaigning aggressively against a sitting prime minister, visiting more than a dozen ridings, and lending Trudeau key political aides and advisers.

“I was an enthusiastic supporter of Justin Trudeau during the election,” a beaming Wynne told reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday morning.

“And I believe that in the months and years to come, he and I will have a solid working relationship based on mutual priorities and values,” she said.

“Last night, Canadians gave our government a real federal partner that we need in order to make progress together,” the premier told reporters at Queen’s Park.

Wynne - whose political nemesis Harper had said he was “delighted” to be able to thwart the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan deriding it as “a payroll tax” - said Trudeau’s win is “good for Ontario” on many fronts.

While she wished Harper perfunctory well wishes as he leaves the national political scene, the premier welcomed a “new tone” with Ottawa.

Indeed, the two Liberals had “a very happy conversation last night” - a stark contrast to the frostiness between the premier and the prime minister over the past two-and-a-half years.

She said they would examine ways to improve public pensions either by implementing the ORPP or somehow bolstering the Canada Pension Plan that Harper refused to do.

Beyond that, Wynne said she would be looking to the new government in Ottawa to keep its $130-billion promise to boost infrastructure, which dovetails with her own 10-year, $30.5-billion plan to build transit, roads and bridges.

Asked how much new tax revenue her cash-strapped government could expect from levies on the cannabis products Trudeau has vowed to legalize, the premier stressed she had “no idea.”

But she added that legalizing and regulating marijuana was an idea “whose time has come.”

“It’s going to have to happen across the country and it’s one of the things that Justin Trudeau will take on, but there are a number of very important issues that we’re going to be working on together and I’m very, very happy that we are working together.”

The premier noted she and the new prime minister and other provincial leaders will travel to the United Nations conference on climate change that begins late next month in Paris to present a united Canadian front on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Still, she emphasized “it is inevitable,” that she would at some point disagree with the fledgling Liberal administration.

But any discord would be more “respectful” than the discourse with the departing regime.