News and views from SA Canada Does it matter that Ontario’s premier is a lesbian?

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The election of Kathleen Wynne as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, lead­ ing to her being sworn in as Canada’s first openly lesbian premier, has made a huge splash in the media. But what does it really mean?

It does show that we have come a long, long way in the area of queer rights and acceptance. This accomplishment has nothing to do with Wynne’s individual performance. As Gary Kinsman, Lau­ rentian sociology professor, veteran queer activist and socialist says, “That Kathleen Wynne can even be the pre­ mier of Ontario is a legacy of our libera­ tion movement.” The civil rights gains made by LGBT people are the result of decades of struggle in the streets and in communities. Interestingly, Wynne her­ self does not claim in any way to be a spokesperson for queer rights.

Wynne is also, of course, leader of a Bay Street party with “progressive” pre­ tensions that acts against the interests of the great majority, including the vast majority of LGBT people. While cur­ rently making cooing noises to Ontario teachers’ unions, she has no intention of reversing the “contracts” imposed on teachers by the notorious Bill 115, which trashed collective bargaining rights, including, critically, the right to strike.

She intends to continue the “auster­ ity” agenda of cutting jobs and servic­ es in the public sector in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” Wynne demon­ strated this intent when, as Minister of Education, she came down hard on the Toronto and District School Board when it refused to implement deep cuts demanded by her ministry. In contrast, as a school trustee with the same board, she had opposed the cuts. But that was then and this is now. In other words, she is complicit in making working peo­ ple pay for the economic crisis they had no part in creating; and in touting the supposedly disinterested “advice” of the same financial sector that triggered the crisis in the first place. introduce the moderate sex-education curriculum reform that former premier McGuinty cowardly abandoned as soon as the religious right started becoming hysterical. We’ll see how that pans out.

Don’t expect any progress from Wynne on the issue of a single public school system. In response to questions on this issue, Wynne declared, “To be distracted by that kind of governance issue—that’s something I’m not going to do.” So the continued existence of the publicly funded Catholic system, which costs Ontario one to two billion wasted dollars a year, and oppresses queer stu­ dents, is just a governance issue?! Unbe­ lievable. As are the PR attempts to paint the “new” government as somehow more progressive, open, yada, yada, yada, than McGuinty’s.

Undoubtedly, part of the objective of this PR frenzy around Wynne’s acces­ sion is to undermine support for the NDP. Queer activists will recall that the labour-based NDP, despite serious defi­ ciencies, is the only party with anything approaching a consistent record on the issue of queer rights. n (Quotes are from Xtra magazine.)