If selected as the next Ontario Liberal leader, Kathleen Wynne said Saturday she is immediately ready to take on the job as premier and hopes to quickly recall the legislature.
When speaking to delegates at the leadership convention in Toronto, Wynne said that Ontarians want their government to do the job it was elected to do.
"They expect us to lead and that's exactly what I intend to do – first thing tomorrow morning," she said, vowing to call back the house on Feb. 19.
The legislature was prorogued when Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that he was stepping down in October. He has said that it will be up to his successor to decide when it is recalled.
Wynne, the MPP for the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, is perceived to be one of two front-runners in the leadership race, along with Sandra Pupatello.
The two women have secured the most first-ballot support from delegates and both would make history if chosen as Ontario Liberal leader and the province's first female premier.
Kennedy knows Liberal potential
Gerard Kennedy told delegates Saturday that he believes he has what it takes to give the Liberals "the fresh start we need to be at our best again," by building on the government's prior achievements and reaching out to rebuild support for the party among Ontarians.
The former Liberal MPP and MP enters the convention in third place in terms of committed first-ballot support from elected delegates, behind Wynne and Pupatello.
Alluding to his prior experience with the provincial Liberals, including his prior run for the party leadership in 1996, Kennedy said that he is familiar with the potential the party has in government.
He said the Liberals are best positioned to solve the problems the province is facing — and the best choice for Ontarians.
Kennedy was the second candidate to speak, following a speech by Mississauga-Erindale MPP Harinder Takhar, who entered the convention stage to the tune of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Taking Care of Business.
First elected to the legislature in 2003, Takhar has held several cabinet portfolios in the McGuinty government.
He told the delegates about his journey to Canada as a young man, his experiences as an immigrant, his life in business and his eventual path into politics.
Takhar said his campaign has focused on ideas, as well as the challenges facing the province, including the deficit that he said may hamper future opportunities if it is not brought under control.
Each of the six leadership candidates are delivering speeches no longer than 30 minutes — hoopla and supporters' demonstrations included. CBCNews.ca will carry all of the speeches live.
Following the speeches will be the announcement of the first-ballot voting results sometime after 12 noon.
Those results are largely known because about 1,800 of the convention's 2,200 delegates have pledged first-round support to a specific candidate. After the first ballot, they are free to shift support to any contender. Those committed delegates are joined by about 400 ex-officio members, mostly former candidates and party bigwigs whose support is not pledged to a specific candidate.
The last-place finisher will be forced off each successive ballot until one candidate attains a majority.
Late Friday night, the Ontario Liberal Party extended the registration deadline for eastern Ontario delegates to register at the convention until 2:45 a.m. Saturday, as a major highway crash involving dozens of vehicles delayed some of the delegates on their trip to Toronto.
Sources were telling CBC News that Kathleen Wynne's camp opposed the registration extension, but Wynne organizers said that was not true.
Shifting support
Early on, most will be watching to see where Toronto-area MPP Eric Hoskins, who is expected to finish last in the opening round, shifts his support when he is forced off the ballot.
When speaking with Evan Solomon, the host of CBC Radio's The House, Hoskins said Saturday morning that he would consult with his delegates before deciding where to throw his support.
The voting intervals are spaced about two-and-a-half hours apart, but many expect they could take longer. The convention floor is located on a separate level than the voting area, posing a possible bottleneck that could delay voting.
Also, delegates will mark paper ballots that must be counted by hand. The possibility of recounts could cause more delays.
Delegates entering the convention will also face a gauntlet of protesters outside the doors of the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Representatives of teachers unions arrived early Saturday morning to picket the site, and a mass rally and demonstration by labour groups is planned for Saturday afternoon.
More than half the committed delegate support is split between Wynne and Pupatello. In third place is Kennedy, who lost to McGuinty by 140 votes on the fifth ballot in 1996.
Most expect one of Pupatello or Wynne to emerge victorious Saturday, with the victor being the one who can most effectively gather up delegate support from the other candidates.
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