n a Saturday in early April, Steven Del Duca stopped by Vici, one of his favourite cafés in Woodbridge. It’s a small, sunny place, located in a strip mall on Weston Road, beloved for its breads and pastries. That morning, it was crowded, especially around the coffee bar, where a throng of middle-aged men, most of them Italian-Canadian, stood around gabbing and sipping espresso.
Some of this is not Del Duca’s fault. As you may recall, Doug Ford’s decisive win in the 2018 general election all but wiped out the Ontario Liberal Party: it lost official party status, Kathleen Wynne was compelled to resign as leader, and Del Duca, like all but seven of his fellow Grits, lost his seat. While he easily won the subsequent race to replace Wynne in 2020, he was still just the leader of the third party, with no place in the legislature.
Del Duca was raised in the suburbs—Etobicoke and then Vaughan. He and his brothers, Mark and Michael, played hockey as boys Growing up, Del Duca was an unabashed history nerd. As a teenager, he also became obsessed with politics. For Christmas, when he was 14, his sister gave him a copy of The Rainmaker, a memoir by the veteran Liberal organizer and senator Keith Davey. Del Duca read the book so many times it fell apart . A couple months after that, one of Benny’s cousins asked Del Duca if he wanted to help out at a federal Liberal nomination meeting.
Del Duca was strategic, though, and he counted on his commitment paying off. While in his 20s, he helped Greg Sorbara—a popular Vaughan MPP who had taken Del Duca under his wing—win the party presidency and then a 2001 by-election that would lead to Sorbara becoming Dalton McGuinty’s finance minister. Over dinner at Swiss Chalet, Sorbara asked Del Duca what his ambitions were. “I’m going to succeed you,” he responded. Sorbara laughed; he wasn’t going anywhere soon.
But Del Duca was tied to the fate of his party, and Wynne’s Liberals were in a tailspin. From the outset, they were caught up in wave after wave of controversy: the costly cancellation of gas plants, the partial privatization of Hydro One, a new sex ed curriculum. The first female and openly gay premier in the province’s history, Wynne was dogged by misogyny and homophobia. Del Duca, for his part, was accused of bending the rules to suit his own purposes.
Arrayed behind Del Duca on stage were 83 of the 124 candidates that the Liberals are fielding across the province. After the devastation of 2018, the party had to work hard to rebuild; 90 per cent of the candidates are new. It was a diverse bunch, with a number of local boldfaces: the flu-shot activist Jill Promoli, doctor Nathan Stall, lawyer Jerry Levitan, former Toronto councillors Mary Fragedakis and Mary-Margaret McMahon. More than 30 of the candidates were under the age of 40.
Everyone need to listen to what he says and plans on doing. Not how well he communicates and intellectually he sounds. Voting for him will be a huge mistake.
Plotting or planning? Who are you shilling for Torontolife
The only thing Ford is competent at is selling hash, lying, disappearing when going gets tough, guzzling beer, making cheesecake and wooing Mafia to Toronto in order to get kickbacks... StevenDelDuca
You write for the common denominator about the high school of a candidate with no mention of what he is bringing to the table! Do all your readers have below average IQs and can't understand what is in store for them if Ford wins, namely private education and private healthcare.
Even you Life are Con-owned to write such an article about the best candidate ON has. An intelligent lawyer, compassionate and able to to give media interviews without a script with a brilliant transparent platform! You prefer school drop outs and corrupt candidates like Ford.
doesn't that mean that Ontario Liberals, Ontario PC should be in the opposition but neither being the official opposition. stevendelduca dougford should be opposition seat warmers.
No, he has no presence whatsoever
Not if they remember the last two liberal premiers 🤡
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