Ontarians re-elect Tory government and two Ukrainians in provincial balloting (06/13/99)

Ontarians re-elect Tory government and two Ukrainians in provincial balloting

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Gerard Kennedy, a former food bank activist of Ukrainian background, captured the High Park-Parkdale riding in Toronto for the Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial elections on June 3; for the first time in over 15 years the winner in that riding did not reflect the party that formed the government.

The Progressive Conservatives (PCs), led by Mike Harris, returned to office with a majority of 59 seats. The Liberals won 35 and the New Democratic Party (NDP) finished with nine.

Mr. Kennedy was re-elected as a member of the provincial Parliament (MPP) by a landslide count of 23,020 votes to 12,699 over Annamarie Castrilli of the PCs, who had "crossed the floor" from the Liberals after losing a bitter nomination fight in a different riding.

Irene Atkinson of the New Democratic Party, a former school trustee, finished a distant third with 4,855 votes, part of the hammering her party took as it failed to secure official status in the legislature (it is granted to parties with at least 12), and, seven years after its surprise win in the 1992 elections, sunk to its lowest level of popular vote (12.5 percent) since the 1960s.

Mr. Kennedy's star is likely to continue its rise in his party after a disappointing effort from current leader Dalton McGuinty. Many observers felt the Tory (PC) government was vulnerable because of dissatisfaction over a decision to finance a tax cut by borrowing money and raft of cutbacks to health and welfare services and education.

Ministers ousted

In fact, Tory Education Minister Dave Johnson lost his seat in Toronto's Don Valley East riding to another former school trustee, David Caplan, after being targeted by a coalition of community groups and the provincial public school teachers' unions.

On May 21 Mr. Johnson had met with representatives of the International Languages Division of the Metropolitan Toronto Separate (Catholic) School Board and told members of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress's (UCC) Provincial Education Council they would have to embark on a fund-raising effort if they wished Ukrainian language instruction to continue.

After the results were announced, Mr. Harris repeated a theme voiced during the election campaign, saying that most of the cutbacks envisaged in his party's 1995 policy statement known as "The Common Sense Revolution" were over and that he would work to reconcile some of the social antagonisms created in his government's first term in office.

On June 4, Volodymyr Halchuk, president of the UCC Sudbury branch and the chair of the UCC Provincial Council's Nominating Committee, sent the PC leader a congratulatory letter, in which he wrote: "We are pleased that you, our premier, were gracious in victory and that you look forward to working together with all Ontarians toward a better future."

Mr. Halchuk also wrote to Mr. Caplan, asserting that "we are certain your term in office will be far more beneficial to the people of Ontario than that of your predecessor. Hopefully the next Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation (CCR) will be more aware of the multicultural reality in Ontario and remove the stain of indifference."

During the tenure of Marylin Mushinski as CCR minister, the multiculturalism directorate was abolished because of alleged "overlap" with the federal secretariat. Isabel Bassett, Ms. Mushinski's successor in the portfolio who was unsuccessfully lobbied to restore the directorate, lost her Toronto Centre-Rosedale seat to Liberal Michael Bryant, but Ms. Mushinski won in Toronto's Scarborough-Centre riding.

Backbencher back

Elsewhere in the province, an influential Tory backbencher of Ukrainian background made it back as an MPP. In the Cambridge riding (about 60 miles west of Toronto), Gerry Martiniuk was re-elected by a 14,000-vote margin over the Liberals' Jerry Boyle.

Appointed as a parliamentary assistant to Attorney General Charles Harnick in November, 1997, Mr. Martiniuk also headed the Ontario Crime Control Commission. Prior to that, he was chairman of the Standing Committee on the Administration of Justice.

Other Ukrainian political campaigns for office included Liberal Lorne Boyko's losing effort against probable Tory ministerial appointee Tim Hudak in Erie Lincoln (just west of Niagara Falls), PC Roy Kostuch's unsuccessful challenge to Liberal incumbent Richard Patten in Ottawa Center, Linda Antonichuk's 202 votes as a Natural Law Party candidate in Oakville and independent Megan Hnatiw's 112 votes in Ottawa West-Nepean.

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