Kathleen Wynne – openly gay Premier of Ontario

In case nobody has noticed, Ontario has a new premier. The most significant province in Canada found itself with a new leader, and more than 99 per cent of Ontarians hadn’t voted for her; they couldn’t because they weren’t given a chance. Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty resigned, and a couple thousand Liberal hacks and zealots got together to party and to elect someone to rule over the rest of us. McGuinty, of course, had claimed to be a Catholic, but under his watch proselytizing gay groups were forced on Catholic schools, abortion was further funded, pro-life protestors were arrested, and extremist sex education curricula were drawn up – withdrawn at the last moment only after popular protest.

And then along came Kathleen Wynne. It became rather like a drinking song didn’t it.  During the run-up to the leadership, and during the Liberal convention itself, every time another journalist told us that Kathleen Wynne was Canada’s first openly gay premier we all had another beer.

Over and over again, the mediocre and the malleable on Canadian television and radio told us with undisguised glee that Ontario’s premier designate was a woman – yes, we realized – and that she was a lesbian – yes, we know, because she and you kept reminding us.

Her gender is hardly the point; as for sexuality, there are plenty of gay men and women in politics, and in media we respect their rights to be public or private. You see, many of us believe that we are defined by more than our sexuality, and that being gay does not characterize or epitomize what we are and how we think.

The problem is that many gay people appear to believe otherwise, and go on about their sexuality when the majority of people simply don’t care.  Instead of representing party or philosophy, they assume that their homosexuality must influence every political action they take, and then have the audacity to accuse the rest of us of being obsessed with homosexuality. Or they shamelessly exploit it.

Liberal politician George Smitherman is a good example. He was a disastrous Ontario cabinet minister, and then ran for mayor of Toronto against Rob Ford and was smashed into a pulp. Why? Because he was a minister during a time of acute scandal, because he is a notorious bully, because people don’t trust him. Pretty straightforward really.

Yet there he was on television stating that being gay led to “suppression of votes.” No, he lost because he was a loser; not a gay loser, just a loser.

Wynne is not a bully, is much more likeable, and won for all sorts of reasons. One of them, however, was precisely because she is gay.

She received financial and political support because of this issue, an entire block of votes was transferred to her because a rival candidate considered it was time for a gay person to become premier, and there was massive media affection because it’s supremely fashionable to appear “progressive” on the gay subject.

Views on mentally ill homeless people, autistic children, or unemployment just don’t cut it. But becoming emotional about homosexuality qualifies you as compassionate and caring. Nonsense! Wynne herself gave a speech just before she was elected where she said it was wonderful that a Catholic could run for leadership. Yet last year one of her main supporters, MPP Glenn Murray, told Catholic bishops that when it came to Catholic teaching about sexuality, “You’re not allowed to do that anymore.”

Wynne herself campaigned against giving funding to Christian education partly because, as she said on my television show, she claimed it would lead to rioting and cars burning on the streets.

So spare us the nonsense about gay victimhood please. The homophobia card will doubtless be played in the forthcoming election, and we all know that federal as well as provincial Conservatives are now terrified of speaking out on the issue in case they are accused of the worst crime known to humanity. Yet within a few days of being elected, Wynne told a gay magazine that she intended to reintroduce the possibility of the sex education course abandoned by her predecessor. This was the document that told children there were half-a-dozen genders, and encouraged kids who still wait for Santa each year to learn about transsexuals and their friends.

 Michael Coren can be booked for speeches, and his books purchased, at www.michaelcoren.com.