[Amare]

And he's officially won the leadership race:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/liberal-leader-ontario-convention-1.5489944

God help us all, we have such an uninspiring field to choose from for the 2022 election:

Candidate #1: Former Minister of Photo-Ops who went around bragging to the media about what very little he did on daily basis, while championing non-sensible wasteful transit spending and planning.

Candidate #2: Current "premier" who hacks and slashes away with no logical reasoning regarding anything he does.

Candidate #3: Probably wont be elected no matter what idea she puts forth since people are still somehow haunted by Bob Rae's leadership more than 25 years after his reign.

So realistically we're choosing between one joke or another joke, that's Ontario politics for you!

 

[jje1000]

Honestly feels like someone who has spent their entire life in government being groomed for a leadership role in politics while not really knowing the world outside it:

According to his campaign site, Del Duca has been an active liberal since he was 15 years old.

He studied political science and Canadian history at the University of Toronto and Carleton University. Del Duca also received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall.

He has been a campaign volunteer, a campus club president, a campaign manager, an MPP and, most notably, a cabinet minister in the Wynne government.

Who is Steven Del Duca, the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party? | Globalnews.ca

Del Duca now has a monumental task on his hands as he works to rebuild the party that was decimated in the 2018 provincial election.

globalnews.ca

Comments from Reddit:

I tend to despise these types, because they literally don't know anything about how working people live, what their day-to-day concerns are, etc.

Guys like Scheer or Trudeau are the same - raised to be part of the "leadership" class. They will talk endlessly about how they are aligned with common values, but in reality, the only thing they represent is the political consensus of whatever elite faction they represent. In del Duca's case, the technocrats and neoliberals who have devastated the middle and lower classes, politically and economically, for forty years.

Definitely. He’s a perfect example of yesterday’s garbage that the OLP needs to remove, especially when it comes to the OLP’s general smell of cronyism. The Liberals seem to be willing to bet people are OK with a general smell when the alternative is a suffocating stench.

It’s no surprise things turned out this way given the sorry state of the party, weak candidates, and leadership election process stacking the deck in favour of established insiders. Very disappointed the OLP leadership election process lost. Yet another Canadian institution remaining stubbornly resistant to structural reform.

I also worry he’ll continue the OLP (and OPC) tradition of ignoring Toronto’s needs, especially when it comes to infrastructure, and focusing on the GTA suburbs. I just don’t think a transportation minister from Vaughan with a track record of questionable choices will have any credibility in the city itself. This will only make the ONDP look better as an OPC alternative to progressive Toronto voters.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPolitics/comments/ff090f

 

[christiesplits]

Other than that woman who came dead last, I think any other candidate would have been stronger than Del Duca. Way too much Wynne baggage.

At least Hunter and Couteau, also former Wynne cabinet ministers, had charisma.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Other than that woman who came dead last, I think any other candidate would have been stronger than Del Duca. Way too much Wynne baggage.

Is there no one in the Liberals sphere who's not sketchy?

 

[BurlOak]

Is there no one in the Liberals sphere who's not sketchy?

I assume that's a rhetorical question.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

I assume that's a rhetorical question.

Is there no one in the Liberals sphere who's not sketchy?

Coteau
Graham

 

[christiesplits]

There are a lot of sketchy circles in the Liberal Party, although not nearly as bad as the Chretien-Martin era.

My favourite "type" of Liberal tends to be the more urbane, leftish types like Adam Vaughan, Arif Virani and Shelley Carroll.

 

[ShonTron]

Steve Paikin: "Meet Ontario's first-ever Italian-Canadian party leader"

"...There’s never been a leader with a last name like Del Duca."

Though he's about as ethnoculturally diverse as an East Side Mario's.

 

[Northern Light]

Steve Paikin: "Meet Ontario's first-ever Italian-Canadian party leader"

"...There’s never been a leader with a last name like Del Duca."

Though he's about as ethnoculturally diverse as an East Side Mario's.

That piece reminded me why I like Steve Paikan less and less.

While, to his credit, he's polite, lets guests finish sentences etc etc.

He also has a fairly overt political bias, while denying he has any. He will, periodically admit that his wife has advised the PC party on certain policy issues; or that he's a Big Blue Machine fanboy (see his published works)...........

But he rarely concedes the obvious.

It isn't necessarily just a partisan bias, but one of living in midtown Toronto, a relatively sheltered life now and in childhood, in educated and affluent surroundings.

Nothing wrong w/any of that, except he very often doesn't realize how that has informed his world view and left him with enormous blind spots.

He's been roundly criticized on Twitter for this piece, and he's clearly taking it very personally. (defensive response).

Its kind of sad, really, he seems a genuinely nice guy, but one who can't rap his head around the notion the world doesn't look like HIS world.

 

[ShonTron]

That piece reminded me why I like Steve Paikan less and less.

While, to his credit, he's polite, lets guests finish sentences etc etc.

He also has a fairly overt political bias, while denying he has any. He will, periodically admit that his wife has advised the PC party on certain policy issues; or that he's a Big Blue Machine fanboy (see his published works)...........

But he rarely concedes the obvious.

It isn't necessarily just a partisan bias, but one of living in midtown Toronto, a relatively sheltered life now and in childhood, in educated and affluent surroundings.

Nothing wrong w/any of that, except he very often doesn't realize how that has informed his world view and left him with enormous blind spots.

He's been roundly criticized on Twitter for this piece, and he's clearly taking it very personally. (defensive response).

Its kind of sad, really, he seems a genuinely nice guy, but one who can't rap his head around the notion the world doesn't look like HIS world.

Oh my gawd, he is such a Bill Davis fanboy.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Oh my gawd, he is such a Bill Davis fanboy.

I wish there was a lot more of those in the PC party.

 

[BurlOak]

I wish there was a lot more of those in the PC party.

The last 2 PC Premiers had to follow the worst Premiers in Ontario history.
It has to be expected that they wouldn't be bland, stay the course leaders.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The last 2 PC Premiers had to follow the worst Premiers in Ontario history.
It has to be expected that they wouldn't be bland, stay the course leaders.

Indeed, it will take some time to top electing a weed dealer.

AoD

 

[junctionist]

Steve Paikin: "Meet Ontario's first-ever Italian-Canadian party leader"

"...There’s never been a leader with a last name like Del Duca."

Though he's about as ethnoculturally diverse as an East Side Mario's.

It's actually unsettling how little diversity there is among political leaders in Canada. We need to be a culture where the best can achieve any position on their merits, regardless of their ethnic or socioeconomic background. Otherwise, there will be fewer options for leaders. With fewer options, there will be a higher risk of having to accept mediocrity.

 

[Northern Light]

It's actually unsettling how little diversity there is among political leaders in Canada. We need to be a culture where the best can achieve any position on their merits, regardless of their ethnic or socioeconomic background. Otherwise, there will be fewer options for leaders. With fewer options, there will be a higher risk of having to accept mediocrity.

I don't disagree.

Lets consider in this particular race, this was the only white male running. There were 3 visible minorities and two white women.

Taken in isolation, particularly if a more qualified white male had won..........that would be fine............

But lets also consider even the PC race featured a more qualified white female (Elliot).......and one who seemed to be until she had to speak publicly (Mulroney)

But the white male won.

****

At least women have made breakthroughs in leading provincial governments, albeit few have made it to a second term; and there are currently zero female premiers.

We've had one visible minority Provincial premier so far as I'm aware...........Ujjal Dosanjh out in BC.

I don't think we need to assume that things would be entirely representative in a country with such fast changing demographics...........but we're not in politics where we were in society 20 years ago, that is a concern to me.

I think particularly in Ontario and BC one might expect that at least one major party might be led by a visible minority at any given time; and that one would also see more diversity within cabinet.

Off hand......and I may be missing someone, but I think there are only 2 visible minority, major party leaders, provincial or federal (excluding the territories), in Canada right now.

Jagmeet, federally, and the NDP opposition leader in Manitoba, Wab Kinew.

There are also only 2 female leaders of the opposition so far as I'm aware; former Premier Rachel Notley in AB, and Ms. Horvath here in Ontario.