Kathleen O'Day Wynne (born May 21, 1953) is a Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. Wynne served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2022, as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Don Valley West. She is the first woman to serve as the premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
Wynne was first elected to public office as a trustee for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in 2000. She subsequently was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2003. Under Premier Dalton McGuinty, she served in various cabinet posts, until resigning to run in the Liberal leadership race when McGuinty announced his resignation in 2012. Wynne replaced McGuinty as premier and leader of the Liberal Party upon her victory of the leadership, and subsequently led the party to a majority government victory in the 2014 Ontario provincial election.
As premier, Wynne introduced free prescription drug coverage for children, increased the minimum wage to $14 an hour, and introduced free post-secondary tuition for families making under $50,000. Controversially, her government introduced a reformed sex education curriculum, brought in a cap-and-trade pollution pricing regime with Quebec and California, and partially privatized Hydro One.
Wynne sought another mandate in the 2018 provincial election; however, she conceded midway into the election and acknowledged her party would not form government again. The Liberals would lose official party status in the worst defeat of a governing party in Ontario history. Wynne subsequently resigned as Liberal leader on election night and was succeeded by Ottawa South MPP John Fraser as interim party leader. Wynne formally resigned as premier on June 29, 2018. She held her seat in the Legislative Assembly and continued to sit as an MPP until 2022 when she did not contest the provincial election and retired from politics.
Background Kathleen O'Day Wynne was born on May 21, 1953, in Richmond Hill, to Dr. John B. Wynne and Patsy O'Day. Her mother was a musician who grew up in Nassau in the Bahamas before immigrating to Canada.
Wynne grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Queen's University and a Master of Arts degree in linguistics from the University of Toronto. She achieved a Master of Education degree in adult education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto). She was a member of the discipline committee of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists from 1997 to 2000.
Wynne served as president of the Toronto Institute of Human Relations. In 1996, she helped found Citizens for Local Democracy, which opposed the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto undertaken by the Progressive Conservative (PC) government of Premier Mike Harris. She founded the Metro Parent Network (later renamed the Toronto Parent Network) which supports improvements in the province's public education system and has participated in numerous other community endeavours.
Prior to her coming out as a lesbian at age 37 she was married to Phil Cowperthwaite, with whom she had three children. She now lives with her second spouse, Jane Rounthwaite, whom Wynne has stated is to be referred to as her "partner" (rather than "wife"). They were married in July 2005 at Fairlawn Avenue United Church in Toronto. Wynne is a member of the United Church of Canada.
School trustee Wynne first ran for trustee in 1994 in Ward 12 but was defeated by Ann Vanstone. In 2000, she ran again and was elected as a trustee for the Toronto District School Board in ward 8. During the campaign, she was labelled an "extremist lesbian" in literature distributed by the "Concerned Citizens of North York and North Toronto". This was the ratepayer group that later supported Karen Stintz in her campaign against local councillor Anne Johnston. Wynne strongly opposed cuts to public education mandated by the Progressive Conservative government.
In 2001, Wynne helped pass a measure encouraging public schools to purchase teaching materials reflecting the presence of gay and lesbian parents in modern society. In December 2001, she ran for chair of the school board but was defeated by Donna Cansfield in a 12–10 vote.
Early provincial politics Wynne was a co-founder with John Sewell of Citizens for Local Democracy, a grassroots group that opposed the 1999 amalgamation of the old City of Toronto with the rest of Metropolitan Toronto. She attempted to enter provincial politics on the strength of her grassroots work and sought the Liberal nomination in St. Paul's for the 1999 provincial election but was defeated for the party nomination by Michael Bryant by a margin of 328 votes to 143. She was elected to the school board the following year, and in 2003, became the Liberal nominee in Don Valley West. In the 2003 provincial election, she defeated Progressive Conservative cabinet minister David Turnbull by over 5,000 votes and became MPP for her riding. The Liberals won the election, and Wynne was appointed parliamentary assistant to Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Mary Anne Chambers, in October 2003. In October 2004, she was appointed parliamentary assistant to Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy.
From June 2005 to November 2005 she served as a member of the Select Committee on Electoral Reform, which recommended "that the referendum be binding upon a vote of 50% + 1, and the support of 50% + 1 in at least two-thirds (i.e., 71) of the ridings or any other formula that ensures the result has support from Northern, rural, and urban areas of the Province", although the cabinet subsequently decided on 100.
On September 18, 2006, she was promoted to minister of education in a cabinet shuffle occasioned by the resignation of Joe Cordiano from the Legislature. She was the province's first openly lesbian cabinet minister and only the second openly LGBT cabinet minister after Deputy Premier George Smitherman. On January 18, 2010, she was moved to minister of transportation and in 2011 she was appointed minister of municipal affairs and housing and minister of aboriginal affairs.
In the 2007 provincial election, Wynne was challenged by the PC leader John Tory. Tory, who was elected to Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey (former PC leader Ernie Eves' riding) in a by-election, was seeking a seat in a Toronto-area riding. Though it was projected to be a close race, Wynne was re-elected with 50.4 percent of the popular vote, defeating Tory, who came in second with 39.7 percent of the popular vote.
McGuinty cabinet
2013 leadership race
Premier Dalton McGuinty announced on October 15, 2012, that he would resign as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and premier of the province once his successor was chosen.
On November 2, 2012, Wynne resigned her cabinet post and three days later launched her bid for the leadership of the party. Wynne was seen as having the strongest on-the-ground organization among the seven candidates, and along with former MPP Sandra Pupatello, and was one of the front runners. She had the most supporters running to be delegates at the convention, with 1,533, and was the only candidate to have supporters in place in all 107 of the province's ridings. Days before members were to begin electing delegates Glen Murray announced he was exiting the leadership race and endorsed Wynne's candidacy. Despite running with the most supporters for delegate positions Wynne placed second, with 468 delegates, behind Pupatello who had 509 delegates. Pupatello was also believed to have the most support among ex officio delegates, which are MPPs, MPs (members of parliament), defeated candidates and other Liberal insiders, and was expected to increase her lead over Wynne on the first ballot at the convention.
At the convention on January 26, 2013, she used her speech to discuss repairing relations with teachers and working with opposition parties, and took aim at her main rival Pupatello, who did not hold a seat, by saying that she was ready to govern and would recall the legislature on February 19. Wynne also addressed her sexuality saying; "When I ran in 2003, I was told that the people of North Toronto and Thorncliffe Park were not ready to elect a gay woman. Well, apparently they were." She went on to say "I don't believe the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, colour or sexual orientation – I don't believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts."
When the first ballot results were announced Wynne received 597 votes, trailing Pupatello by only two votes. Eric Hoskins received the fewest votes of the six candidates and was therefore eliminated. Hoskins threw his support behind Wynne while fourth-place candidate Harinder Takhar announced he was endorsing Pupatello. On the second ballot, Pupatello's lead grew to 67 votes over Wynne. Takhar, whose name was left on the second ballot, finished last and was eliminated from the race. Gerard Kennedy and Charles Sousa, who finished third and fourth respectively, withdrew from the race and both endorsed Wynne. With the support of both Kennedy and Sousa, her win was all but guaranteed on the third ballot. When the results of that ballot were announced Wynne received 57 per cent of the votes compared to 43 per cent for Pupatello.
Premiership (2013–2018)
Wynne was sworn in as premier of Ontario on February 11, 2013, becoming the province's first female premier, and the first premier in Canada to be openly gay. After four months of prorogation of the legislature, Wynne resumed the house on February 17, 2013.
Gas plant scandal After being sworn in as premier, Wynne quickly became embroiled in the Ontario power plant scandal, which had developed under the administration of her predecessor, Premier Dalton McGuinty. Opposition parties accused Wynne of having a role in the McGuinty government's costly decision to cancel the construction of gas plants in Mississauga and North-East Oakville in 2011, when she was co-chair of the Liberal campaign. Wynne denied that she was involved in the gas plant meetings or in the decision to cancel the plants, and asked the auditor general to investigate the cost of cancelling the plants. After months of investigation, the auditor general released their report on the gas plants in October 2013, suggesting the cancellation of both gas plants could cost taxpayers as much as $1.1 billion. After the report was released by the auditor general, Wynne admitted the gas plant relocations "shouldn't have happened". She apologized, vowing to ensure that "this doesn't happen again".
In February 2013, the legislative committee that had been investigating the gas plants cancellation prior to McGuinty's resignation and prorogation of the legislature in October resumed its work. Wynne called for the release of all documents related to the decision to the legislature's Justice Committee and agreed to testify before the committee, while continuing to deny that she was involved in the decision to cancel the plants. Appearing before the committee in April 2013, Wynne testified she had had no role in the decision to cancel the plants, and had learned of the decision to cancel the plants through media reports.