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Photo by Malcolm Taylor for National Post

Elliott recently sold the 19th century stone farmhouse she and Flaherty bought and renovated in Whitby. She now lives in a converted coach house in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood with two of her sons. If she does become Premier, she said, she’ll be able to walk to Queen’s Park, a nice change from the years of commuting back and forth up the 401.

Elliott has often said that she, not Flaherty, was supposed to be the first one in the family to run for office. But Flaherty put his name in first. And after an unsuccessful run for the PCs in 1990, he broke through in the Mike Harris wave of 1995.

Elliott might have run in that election herself, but in 1991 she gave birth to the family’s three sons. As an infant, one of the boys, John, was hospitalized for what doctors later decided was encephalitis. He suffered permanent damage from the illness and was significantly developmentally delayed as a result. After his diagnosis, Elliott became, and remains, a fierce advocate for the rights and services of both children and adults with special needs.

Photo by Glenn Lowson/National Post

When asked why she’s getting back into politics, she sleepwalked through several talking points before launching into an urgent, detailed critique of services available in Ontario for adults who age out of the youth disabilities system.

“Helping people find work, to find safe, clean housing, to be able to have a life like everybody else is really important to me,” she said.

Today, John Flaherty volunteers at the Abilities Centre in Whitby, a facility Elliott and Jim Flaherty were instrumental in setting up. An avid runner, he hopes to become a personal trainer. Quinn graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business; Galen is a second-year law student at Osgoode Hall. As he did in 2015, Galen is also helping out on his mother’s campaign. He accompanied her to an interview with The National Post.