So, that was an election, Ontario. I’m sure we’ll be full of hot takes, followed by the ritual lamentations about vote-splitting, and there will be a bunch of sanctimonious claptrap about “strategic voting,” but in the meantime, I am reminded of 2011. Why? Because with a Progressive Conservative government and an NDP official opposition, we may find that for the next little while, we’ll see a number of those MPPs talking about how great it is that there’s some real choice in visions in Ontario, and isn’t it great that those mushy-middle Liberals are out of the picture? And while we got a bunch of that in 2011, we also quickly found that the NDP MPs that did get elected in their big wave were not all up to par, and they went on an aggressive lockdown orchestrated by the leader’s office (or interim leader, as the case quickly proved to be). And it was that lack of real competence that ensured that the Liberals still in the chamber quickly became the grown-ups in the room. Question Period didn’t really start until then-interim leader Bob Rae stood up, and he ran circles around both the opposition and the government, frankly. And I suspect that it had something to do with how the Liberals were able to rebuild as quickly as they did – because people quickly started to clamour for a centrist vision that they could rally around. But it also didn’t happen without a lot of hard work, and a leader who emphasised the importance of that. We’ll have to see where the Liberals in Ontario land. As of the time I’m writing this, there is enough fluctuation still that we’re not sure if they will keep official party status at eight seats, and with Kathleen Wynne’s resignation as party leader, that leaves it open to see how these Liberals will get their acts together to provide that centrist voice (which was somewhat lacking under Wynne – who did win her own seat, incidentally). And in the meantime, here’s some advice from Jean Charest about rebuilding a devastated party.

Meanwhile, in hot takes, Justin Ling looks at the hard time that Doug Ford will have when it comes to trying to dismantle the cap-and-trade system in the province as well as fight the federal carbon price backstop, while Chris Selley notes that this is a bit of a blank slate because we have no coherent vision of what the party’s vision really is after their unrealistic platform. John Ivison asserts that this is the dawn of a new era of combative federalism, with Ford voting against everything coming from Ottawa. Paul Wells looks at the immediate problems for both Ford and Justin Trudeau coming out of last night’s election.

Good reads:

• While Justin Trudeau met with Emmanuel Macron and they tried to put a good face on for Trump’s arrival at the G7, Trump launched attacks on Trudeau over Twitter.
• Here’s a look at what’s on the G7 agenda, with an interview with Trudeau here. Plastics will be a big issue, but they haven’t been eliminated from the summit itself.
• 18-year-old allegations have surfaced that the PM may have “groped” a reporter at a music festival when he was 28. He says he doesn’t recall any interaction.
• Here are some educated guesses about how Trudeau will deal with the incoming Ford government in Ontario.
• The Senate passed the legalised cannabis bill by a fairly wide margin. The lesson: stop paying attention to Senator Peter Harder when he’s being a drama queen.
• Only a fraction of irregular asylum seekers have been removed from the country, but this is likely because most haven’t exhausted their legal options yet.
• There was another heated committee meeting, this time with veterans affairs. Yay silly season!
• The Speaker has declined to weigh in if there was any privilege issue by Bill Morneau allegedly “threatening” potential witnesses from insurance companies.
• Canadian troops in Iraq are shifting their mission to training security forces in Mosul to prevent future terrorist incursions.
• Colby Cosh reminds us that amidst the Ontario election drama, there is far greater silliness to be found in the UK as they try to negotiate their Brexit strategy.

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