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These events are never entirely as they appear. The town halls are billed as if Wynne is omniscient, willing and able to thoroughly answer everyone’s questions about anything. In reality, just a lucky handful of attendees get selected to ask questions, with no opportunity at rebuttals, and the answers given are usually unsatisfactory. Wynne often trots out typical talking points. Other times she defers attendees’ questions to the ministers in charge of the files, telling them they’ll do followup. The vast majority of attendees leave without answers.

Photo by Justin Tang/CP

Then there’s the locations. Wynne’s first three town halls were held in the electoral districts of University-Rosedale (a new district formed from parts of two other districts), Brampton Centre and Ottawa West-Nepean. All are Liberal turf. Trudeau can still rely on his legion of young fans to show up in droves when he strategically visits schools. In contrast, Wynne’s town halls reflect the polls showing her approval ratings flatlining in the teens. Her first three town halls, while held on Liberal-friendly territory, have nevertheless been notable for pointed questions from disgruntled or disappointed Ontarians on such hot-button issues as rising hydro rates and housing costs, health-care deficiencies and provincial debt.

Wynne’s aides have come up with some clever ways, on top of strategic location choices, to try to protect the premier. First off, the town halls have only had seating for a few hundred attendees. This ensures the crowd doesn’t get too large and raucous (or maybe Wynne isn’t much of a crowd draw). In contrast, Trudeau’s PMO picks larger venues, like gymnasiums full of people, and when a negative question or a heckler interrupts the PM he can rely on the majority of them to have his back.