Wynne needs ‘new personality’ to win 2018 election, Ryerson professor says

By: Harry Walker and Jaye Williams

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne must get a “new personality” in order to win the upcoming provincial election, a Ryerson professor said.

Patrice Dutil, professor of politics and public administration at the university, said the beleaguered Liberal leader had a mountain to climb in order to win back popularity across the province.

“This serious decline in her personal popularity is something she’s going to have to overcome,” Professor Dutil said. “It’s not going to be easy because people have known her for many years now.”

“She’s going to have a real challenge. She needs a new personality and it’s not easy to do.”

Professor Dutil said Wynne’s economic record and skyrocketing hydro bills for Ontarians had also contributed to her loss of popularity.

“The reality is, for a long time now Ontario has been a very slow-growth jurisdiction,” he said. “We’re not growing. We’re not giving jobs to our kids, we’re not attracting employers, employers are not hiring, and we’ve got a serious difficulty there and naturally they take it out on the government.”

Wynne’s lack of transparency over the province’s spiralling off-peak electricity bills is also responsible for her plummeting popularity, Professor Dutil said.

“People don’t understand what they’re doing with Ontario hydro – they’ve privatized half of it,” he said. “They see their hydro prices have gone up dramatically and dropped dramatically, and people can smell a rat.”

The Ontario provincial government has been accused of improperly accounting for the $26 billion in debt the province has taken on to cut hydro bills in the short term.

The $26 billion is being borrowed through Ontario Power Generation, which means it will not appear on the province’s accounts – forcing consumers to pay the debt through increased rates over the next three decades.

A new poll at Ryerson found more than 40 per cent of the university’s students rated Wynne’s performance as Ontario premier at least “somewhat” negatively, while only 22 per cent rated her positively.

The poll was conducted by Ryerson School of Journalism students. They surveyed 567 full-time students at Ryerson University from Oct. 6 to Oct. 19. The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.