Ontario Liberals react angrily to leadership candidate’s arrogance and ignorance

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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As 1,700 delegates from across Ontario get ready to converge on Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to elect the next leader of the Ontario Liberal Party who will then instantly become the next premier of Ontario, the discussion is all about the contemptuous remarks Sandra Pupatello has made about fellow leadership candidates.

According to the Toronto Star newspaper, at a meeting with its Editorial Board, Pupatello said that the only reason she decided to enter the leadership race because of the terrible year that the Ontario Liberals had and her complete disdain for her fellow candidates.

Pupatello appears to have been utterly contemptuous and dismissive of her leadership rivals when she reportedly told the Toronto Star “when I stand back and look at the cast of candidates, even I would pick me.  I have to be plain about that”

Conveniently forgetting that Pupatello’s chief rival Kathleen Wynne announced her intention to be the next Ontario leader long before other cabinet ministers such as finance minister Dwight Duncan and Deb Mathews chickened out, Pupatello ignorantly claims that her main rival Wynne, Gerard Kennedy, Harinder Takhar, Charles Sousa and Eric Hoskins would not have entered the race if candidates with more name recognition had sought to succeed current premier Dalton McGuinty.

A Pupatello delegate from Windsorreacted to Pupatello’s reported comments by questioning whether she should even bother to attend the Toronto convention. “These must be the stupidest comments a politician can make” said the liberal convention delegate speaking on the condition of anonymity. I guess I have to think whether I want to drive all the way to Toronto in this bad weather because I now simply cannot vote for Sandra on the second ballot.  This is beyond the pale”, said the delegate.

A source within the campaign of a candidate who was widely expected to throw his support to Pupatello on the second ballot said that the remarks attributed to Pupatello “are absolutely insulting” and wondered whether Pupatello is unaware that “Hoskins is a Rhodes Scholar, Charles is an experienced banker, Takhar was a successful businessman (prior to entering politics) and Kennedy has more political savvy than anyone else in the race?”

A Kathleen Wynne supporter worried how Pupatello’s remarks would be used by one or both of the opposition parties in the next election.  “If Kathleen were to win the leadership can you imagine the ads that Hudak and Horwath would run in the next election campaign” he questioned referring respectively to the Ontario Progressive Conservative and New Democrat leaders.

By Friday evening it should be possible to assess if an “anyone but Sandra” sentiment has begun to form among delegates upset at Pupatello slagging fellow liberals.

Viresh is a Lawyer, C.A., Writer and Political Analyst based in Toronto