Kathleen Wynne was elected to lead Ontario's Liberal party — and become the province's premier — at its leadership convention in Toronto, January 26, 2013.

With 1,150 votes to Sandra Pupatello's 866 votes on the third ballot at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention on Saturday, Kathleen Wynne was elected to lead the party and becomes Ontario's first female premier — and Canada's first out LGBT premier.

Wynne, 59, is married to Jane Rounthwaite, and the party's new leader said she believed her sexual orientation would not be an issue in the race or going forward.

"The province has changed, our party has changed," she said earlier in the balloting. "I do not believe that the people of Ontario … hold that prejudice in their hearts."

After the third balloting, Wynne said, "It is a remarkable night for all of us."

It has been quite a path for Wynne, who described in an extensive profile in The Star one of her early runs for office and the anti-LGBT sentiments she faced:

Her first run for office, her 1994 bid for school trustee, was a narrow political loss, and a lesson in the temper of the times. "I call those my Norma Rae moments, you know?" Wynne says of the virulent backlash at what she calls the "extremist lesbian stuff." Her lesson to her children: "They're going to say bad things about your momma. We knew it was going to be a factor."



The ultimate effect was to embolden her. "To have somebody say. . . you are 'other' and we can marginalize you. I was indignant. . . I wasn't going to let that stop me."



That was almost two decades ago.