Canada PoliticsWill Liberals give Ontario its first openly gay, woman or visible minority premier?
There's a good chance that Ontario Liberals will give the province of Ontario 'a first' this weekend.
Among their six candidates, they have a Sikh candidate in Harinder Takhar, an openly gay woman in Kathleen Wynne, and another hetero-sexual woman in Sandra Pupatello.
First openly gay premier?
According to Xtra.ca, Kathleen Wynne was "the first out lesbian elected to Queen's Park" way back in 2003. In 2006, she became province's first lesbian cabinet minister and, after this weekend, could be the country's first ever lesbian premier.
Wynne comes into the convention with the second most committed delegates on the first ballot and as such, is positioned well to win the convention.
Is Ontario ready for a 'gay' premier?
Martin Regg Cohn from the Toronto Star says that's a 'dumb' question.
"It’s the wrong question — as dumb as asking whether America was ready for a black president," he wrote.
"It wasn’t ready for any black president. Just Barack Obama."
First female premier?
The smart money this weekend is on Wynne or Sandra Pupatello winning the leadership. If either of those scenarios come to fruition, Ontario will have it's first ever female premier.
There have been 6 other female premiers in other provinces but according to J.J. McCullough of the Huffington Post, that doesn't really mean the other provinces are all that more progressive than Ontario.
"It wasn't until 2011 that any province larger than Prince Edward Island was ready to elect a female premier, in fact, and even now, when the country's full of 'em, Quebec's Pauline Marois remains the only woman elected to head a province who was a) not already the incumbent and b) faced a male opponent," he wrote recently.
"The British Columbia Social Credit Party was rewarded for installing the country's first female premier with the largest landslide defeat in its history. And of course we all know what happened to poor Kim Campbell."
First visible minority premier?
Okay -- this is a long-shot at best. But Harinder Takhar enters the convention with the fourth most delegates -- the same spot Dalton McGuinty was in when he won the party's leadership in 1996. And, in an interview with Yahoo! Canada News last week, Takhar says he's in this to win.
If Takhar does win, he would be Canada's second Sikh premier -- Ujjal Dosanjh was B.C.'s premier for a short period between 2000 and 2001.
Another 'white guy'?
Gerard Kennedy could be the province's next premier -- the heterosexual Caucasian male has the third most first ballot delegates. According ThreeHundredEight.com blogger Eric Grenier, Kennedy could win but he'll need the convention floor 'horsetrading' to go exactly his way.
"[Kennedy] probably needs Takhar to endorse him immediately after the first ballot if he can't somehow get Hoskins or Sousa to do so. With Kennedy managing such a coup after the first ballot, he might be able to show himself to be the candidate with the momentum, giving him the necessary support from Hoskins and Sousa. Otherwise, it is difficult to see why those delegates committed to Sousa or Hoskins would vote for Kennedy instead of one of the frontrunners, or why the delegates committed to Pupatello or Wynne would suddenly jump ship. The numbers are there for Kennedy, but the odds are very slim."
The Toronto Star reported, Thursday, that Takhar and Kennedy were in talks about joining forces.
Out of all the camps at the convention, the Takhar camp seems to be the least organized: they skipped their media availability sessions and were the only group not to have a hospitality suite at the conference hotel.
Whatever happens this weekend, it’s good to see the Liberals have such a diverse group of candidates.
May the best man, woman, visible minority or openly gay candidate win.
