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Leadership hopeful visits with local Liberals in Orillia

Michael Coteau is one of six people running for Ontario Liberal leader
2020-01-27 Michael Coteau in Orillia
Michael Coteau, who is running for the leadership of Ontario's Liberals, was at Sunset Grill in Orillia on Monday to meet with local party members. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters

One of the six people vying to lead Ontario’s Liberals made a stop in Orillia on Monday.

Michael Coteau, MPP for the Toronto riding of Don Valley East, met with about 20 local Liberals at Sunset Grill.

Monday’s visit was a campaign stop, of sorts, but it’s a campaign with a dynamic unlike that of a general election.

“It’s such a different type of campaign because you’re targeting the 40,000 Liberal members and the 2,100 who will show up at the convention to choose the next leader,” Coteau said.

He is running for the leadership against Steven Del Duca, Kate Graham, Brenda Hollingsworth, Mitzie Hunter and Alvin Tedjo.

Coteau praised the “diversity” of the candidates — three of whom are women and two of whom, including himself, have a Caribbean background.

However, “the diversity of ideas is No. 1,” he said, and he feels he’s the right person for the job.

After a big defeat at the hands of the Progressive Conservatives in the 2018 election that cost the Liberals their official party status, Coteau sees this as an opportunity to rebuild and forge a new path for the party.

He said he isn’t taking the same approach as his fellow leadership hopefuls, including Del Duca, who has described the objective of defeating Premier Doug Ford as “the fight of our lives.”

“I want us to go beyond that obvious approach and rethink what it means to be an Ontarian today,” Coteau said. “Let’s look to the next 10 years. Let’s look to the next 30 years.”

“Obviously,” he continued, “I want to stop what Doug Ford is doing, but we need to do things differently.”

Coteau served for eight years as a trustee with the Toronto District School Board, and he was critical Monday of the province’s handling of the education file.

“The Ford government has not been respectful in their approach to this negotiation. They’ve vilified teachers,” he said, adding Education Minister Stephen Lecce should “spend less time on social media and more time on negotiations.”

“There’s no question in my mind the minister of education and the premier did not do their homework when it came to e-learning and classroom sizes,” he said.

Where electoral reform is concerned, Coteau is keeping an open mind.

“The (first-past-the-post) system is not doing us any favours when it comes to representation,” he said, adding he is in favour of a different system but isn’t sure what one. “We’ve got to make sure people are fully on board for that change in order to get it done.”

Ultimately, Coteau hopes his experience will help convince the delegates to choose him as the party’s next leader. That experience includes running three ministries at the same time under former premier Kathleen Wynne.

“I have a proven track record. I’ve won six elections in a row,” he said. “I understand how the party works and how elections work.”

The Simcoe North Provincial Liberal Association invited Coteau to town Monday. The association will not be endorsing any of the candidates during the leadership race and it will be extending similar invitations to the other five.

Delegates will meet March 7 in Mississauga to choose the next Liberal leader.


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Nathan Taylor

About the Author: Nathan Taylor

Nathan Taylor is the desk editor for Village Media's central Ontario news desk in Simcoe County and Newmarket.
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