The nascent Ontario Liberal leadership race is getting an infusion of new blood.Former Liberal candidate and one-time political aide Alvin Tedjo will formally announce his bid to lead the troubled former governing party on Sunday.“I’m running for my kids — my kids are 4, 6, and 8-years-old — and everyone else in this province who is worried about the future,” Tedjo, 35, said Thursday.“We’ve got an unprecedented amount of changes coming up in terms of our climate, in terms of our economy, in terms of our education system,” said the former Sheridan College director of government relations. “And there are real consequences that we can see every week that this government is completely unprepared for,” he said, referring to Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.Tedjo, who lost last June in Oakville North-Burlington to Conservative Effie Triantafilopoulos, was one of scores of defeated Liberal candidates across the province.“We needed to listen and I’m excited about listening to people, about engaging with them and what their concerns and issues are. That’s where we sort of lost track,” he said.“I have all the respect for Kathleen (Wynne) and previous cabinet ministers for the last 15 years, who I think did a lot of great things for the province, but we have to face the fact that Ontarians didn’t like the direction we were going.”He joins front-runner Steven Del Duca, 45, the former transportation minister who was defeated in his Vaughan seat, and Don Valley East MPP Michael Coteau, 46, the former children and youth services minister, in the undeclared contest.After being in office since 2003, Wynne’s Liberals went from a majority government to a rump of seven MPPs in the 124-member legislature in 2018.Read more:Marie-France Lalonde to seek federal Liberal nominationJohn Tory could be strongest leader for Ontario Liberals, poll suggestsTime for Ont ...
|
