The continued success of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is a monument to cynicism, hubris and wholesale opportunism.

That’s not meant as an insult. Far from it. That she remains lodged in the premier’s office is less a testament to the ineptitude of her opposition (though that’s also a factor) than to her political instincts and skills.

Consider her legacy. She rose through the ranks to become a senior member of Dalton McGuinty’s government, first reaping the benefits of its early, outsized popularity, then neatly sidestepping McGuinty’s many late-breaking scandals. She was elected premier in 2014 — the first woman to fill the position — despite a severe collective hangover from the McGuinty years.

Today, after fifteen years of Liberal governments in the country’s biggest province, Wynne finds herself in a familiar position: an election looming with discouraging poll numbers and a shaky Progressive Conservative opposition. Yet she has demonstrated that her government’s poisoned legacy is no match for her badger-like politicking. If history is any judge, Wynne will walk away with the prize again on June 7.

So it was with a mix of discouragement and amusement that I read the Toronto Star’s recent attempt to explain why Kathleen Wynne remains so unpopular. Columnist Bob Hepburn — under the headline, ‘Is Wynne so unpopular because she is a woman?’ — wondered aloud whether Wynne is a victim not of Liberal fatigue but of institutional sexism. His answer to this rhetorical question was a resounding ‘yes’.

“For many voters, when things are going well they don’t care if the premier is a woman. But if times get tough, the criticism for a woman leader grows tremendously with some of the attacks focused on her gender, and in Wynne’s case her sexual orientation,” Hepburn wrote.

After yawning and pouring another coffee, I considered Hepburn’s evidence. He mentions the paltry number of women premiers in this country (eight), and the number of times they’ve been elected (once.) He brings up the “sexist, vulgar and steady” abuse launched at Wynne throughout her latter career as a cabinet minister and premier.

That Wynne managed to extend the Liberal tenure for this long is impressive enough. That she stands a good chance of extending it further is proof positive of her abilities as a politician. That Wynne managed to extend the Liberal tenure for this long is impressive enough. That she stands a good chance of extending it further is proof positive of her abilities as a politician.

Hepburn then declared himself convinced, doubling down in a second column on the subject. Wynne’s “popularity rating is lower than any Ontario premier in modern history and you can’t tell me Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris or Bob Rae were very popular at the end of their time as premier,” Hepburn writes.

Well, sure. But for the sake of partisanship (and space), let’s concentrate on McGuinty. In 2011, at the nadir of his electoral misery, McGuinty found himself with a 16 per cent approval rating — “near (the) bottom of the barrel,” as the Star reported at the time. He won the subsequent election nonetheless.

Last November, at a similar point in the election cycle, Wynne also had a 16 per cent approval rating. The Star deemed this result to be Wynne’s “rock bottom”; Hepburn himself cited it in a column at the time.

In other words, this isn’t sexism — Hepburn straining efforts to prove otherwise notwithstanding. It’s cause-and-effect. McGuinty approval ratings were sapped by a variety of scandals, chief among them his government’s decision to cancel the construction of gas plants in two choice Toronto postal codes. This tidy bit of NIMBYism, done to appease would-be Liberal voters in those tony burghs, cost the province over $1 billion, according to a later auditor general’s report.

Wynne, meanwhile, has suffered politically from voters’ outrage over exploding electricity rates — a direct result of her government’s piecemeal sell-off of Ontario Hydro. Wynne also purchased peace with Toronto-area teachers unions using public money, resulting in a nearly threefold increase in salaries between 2014 and 2016, according to numbers tabulated by the National Post.

Finally, there’s the malaise setting in for the Ontario Liberals. They have governed the province for 15 years straight — longer even than even their Liberal cousins in Quebec. Wynne’s gender and sexuality may be an issue for gasbag partisans and internet trolls. For others, there remains a genuine and entirely understandable desire to vote the bastards out.

That Wynne managed to extend the Liberal tenure for this long is impressive enough. That she stands a good chance of extending it further is proof positive of her abilities as a politician. Just the other day she shoehorned the biggest increase in the minimum wage in her province’s recent history into a few short months before the election. The move — a naked leftward grab for voters cozying up to Ontario’s NDP — will cost upwards of 50,000 jobs, according to the province’s Financial Accountability Office.

No matter. The increase triggered an explosion of spleen at Tim Hortons, with several franchises stepping up to play the Dickensian boogeymen in Wynne’s political theatre. No more paid breaks for workers. Tips in the till, please. Wynne declared herself outraged on Twitter and the province’s leftward flank followed — as did the polls.

Wynne’s Liberals, according to the most recent Campaign Research poll, are within spitting distance of the Progressive Conservatives.

Sexism? Pshaw. This is a master at work.

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