http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ontario-premier-dalton-mcguinty-stepping-down-1.996892
Ontario Premier Dalton Mcguinty Stepping Down
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Monday he is stepping down from his post, but will remain on the job until a leadership convention can be held.
McGuinty made the announcement just before 6:30 p.m. ET.
“After 16 years as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, and after nine years as premier, it’s time for renewal. It’s time for the next Liberal premier, it’s time for the next set of Liberal ideas to guide our province forward,” McGuinty said, as his wife Terri looked on from the front row.
McGuinty said he has asked the party’s president to convene a leadership convention “at the earliest possible opportunity.”
He will continue to serve as premier “until such time our party has elected a new leader.”
McGuinty also said that he visited Lieut.-Gov. David Onley earlier in the day and asked him to prorogue the Legislature. McGuinty said the move is necessary for the Liberal government to negotiate a wage-freeze agreement with the province’s public-sector workers in an effort to eliminate the province’s deficit.
McGuinty blamed the suspension of the Legislature on the opposition parties’ unwillingness to support his government’s efforts to secure that wage freeze.
He said he wants to be able to pursue discussions with labour groups, and the opposition, “in a way that is free of the heightened rancour that has sadly too frequently characterized our Legislature of late.”
When the House returns, he said, “we will either have negotiated agreements in hand, or a legislative plan supported by the opposition.”