Last week, an election took place in the province where I live, Ontario, Canada. A representative of the Liberal party (which now holds a majority government), Kathleen Wynne will continue to work as premier since taking over for the retired Dalton McGuinty in February of 2013. But her road to formal election was by no means an easy one.
The election sparked quite the conversation among Ontarians, especially in my university age group. No one seemed quite certain who to vote for. While each party’s platforms, outlined succinctly in this drop down chart by CBC, have their merits and shortcomings, most of the conversation centred around the party leaders themselves, as well as their parties’ histories.
Tim Hudak, the leader of the conservative party, led a no-compromise, hard right campaign that involved the elimination of 100,000 public sector jobs. This lost him quite a few conservative votes as well as the confidence of a few in his own party, leading to Hudak’s resignation following the election. Wynne’s campaign catered nicely to the mostly liberal views of my fellow peers, but the party’s shady past scandals involving the closing of power plants and the loss of more than a billion dollars swayed more than a few votes.
Some say that all in all it was NDP leader Andrea Horwath who was the biggest loser, as she triggered the election by shutting down a proposed budget whose goals coincided strongly with NDP ideals. The Green Party, a stalwart fourth place constant, remained seatless, with party leader Mike Schreiner expressing his indignation over not being included in the televised debate.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s up to Wynne and her new majority government to make good on their promises and do what is best for the province of Ontario. The problem is, we all have a different idea of what that is. I guess that’s why we have different political parties in the first place.
This election reminds me how necessary prayer is. Whatever our ideological leanings, and wherever we find ourselves geographically, we need to pray for our political leaders. Because they need grace just as much as we do.
Photo by Jamie McCaffrey.
