Del Duca’s resignation as Ontario Liberals have a disappointing election night

Links to the Breadcrumb trail

1. Ontario Elections
2. Canadian politics

Earlier this week, Del Duca vowed to remain the leader regardless of the election results

Publication date:

June 2, 2022 • 4 hours ago • 3 minutes reading • 46 comments Ontario Liberal Party leader Stephen Del Duca arrives for his election night event in Vaughn, June 2, 2022 Photo: Chris Young / The Canadian Press

Content of the article

OTTAWA – Ontario Liberals Stephen Del Duca resigned on Thursday after failing to win his own seat, official party status or a significantly larger seat for his party in the provincial legislature.

Advertising 2

This ad is not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

At 10:45 p.m., the Liberals led or elected in eight places compared to the seven they had in the legislature at the time of the dissolution, but Del Duca’s ride to Von Woodbridge was not among them.

Del Duca said he was proud of the party’s efforts, but that was not enough.

“I have no doubt that the women and men elected by the Ontario Liberals in the legislature will do their part, in fact they will do more than their part to help develop a new and vigorous progressive movement in Ontario,” he said. in a room full of supporters. “However, this will be a movement led by a new leader.

He said the party would be out of debt later this year and was confident it would be in a better position to fight a future campaign, but said he would do so with a new leader at the helm.

Advertising 3

This ad is not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

“I know that we as a political family and we as a political movement will start the next campaign from a much better place,” Del Duca.

Earlier this week, he promised to remain a leader regardless of the outcome, but the party’s result was well below even the worst estimates of most sociologists, who predicted that the Liberals would have at least enough seats to regain party status.

1. 2022 Provincial Voting Ride Map

2. The roar of Doug Ford’s computer to a major victory in Ontario

The Liberals lost the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell ride in eastern Ontario, which was held by florist Amanda Simard and Thunder Bay – Superior North. They made up for those losses with possible victories in Kingston, Toronto and Bari.

Advertising 4

This ad is not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

The lack of official party status will be a major obstacle for liberals, parties need at least 12 seats to receive this status, and it comes with more funding, more questions during the question period and more staff to feel the presence of Del Duca was a minister in the government of former Prime Minister Kathleen Winn and won the party’s race for leadership in 2020 with a comfortable lead over several of his former cabinet colleagues.

The 2018 election was a disaster for Win, as party support fell, losing 48 seats and falling from the government to the third party in the legislature. With only seven seats, the party does not even have official party status in the legislature.

Ashley Chanadi, a senior consultant at McMillan Vantage Policy Group and a former Wynne employee, said that after 2018 the party was left in a big hole and tonight is the beginning of the climb.

Advertising 5

This ad is not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

“They did a good job, grabbed momentum, ran a professional campaign that matched the Liberal Party’s brand, with really limited resources compared to the resources we had in the past,” she said.

At Doug Ford, progressive conservatives attracted more working-class votes than before, even gaining the approval of major private sector unions. Chanadi said that if the Liberals want to return to power, they will have to find out whether this is a temporary or permanent change.

“Is this a Doug Ford phenomenon or have we seen a kind of blue-collar vote forever, especially those unions, private sector unions that end up in the Tories,” she said.

Computers had 42 years in power between 1943 and 1985, including 14 years under former Prime Minister Bill Davis. Chanadi said the party’s version was moderate and friendly, and the Ford government had some similarities.

“If you go back to the years of Bill Davis, the PC party was a moderate party with a big tent. And the only thing you can love or hate about Doug Ford is that he’s not a fierce guerrilla.

• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter: ryantumilty

Share this article on your social network

Advertising

This ad is not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

NP Published

Sign up to receive daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

By clicking the register button, you agree to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

Thank you for registering!

Welcome email is on the way. If you don’t see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of NP Posted will be in your inbox soon.

There was a problem registering with you. Please, try again

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civic discussion forum and encourages all readers to share their views on our articles. It can take up to an hour to moderate comments before they appear on the site. Please keep your comments up to date and respectful. We have enabled email notifications – you will now receive an email if you receive a response to your comment, there is an update on the thread for comments you follow, or if a user you follow comments on a comment. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.