Ontario Fire Fighters Help Liberals Win Landslide Re-election

October 12, 2007 -- The Ontario Liberal Party has been swept back to power for another four years in the wake of an election campaign bathed in the IAFF’s trademark gold-and-black colours of support. The Liberals have acted decisively on a number of important fire fighter issues, including presumptive cancer legislation.

The October 10 landslide election win is a huge victory for the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA), which had endorsed the re-election bid of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty unanimously in June, and whose leadership and members surrounded the Premier at campaign stops across Ontario, their highly visible gold-and-black T-shirts and signs proclaiming “Fire Fighters for McGuinty” a fixture on nightly campaign news coverage.

“The Premier commented to me that it was very comforting to get off the campaign bus anywhere in Ontario and see the gold and black of IAFF members,” says an elated OPFFA President Fred LeBlanc, who called the election result “a validation of the individual they chose to endorse as Premier of Ontario.”

He adds, “In June, nobody could have predicted what happened last night, but we were standing with a person who was very supportive of fire fighters and our families, and we were very proud to do so.”

The endorsement of the Premier touched off a series of local candidate endorsements across Ontario, with fire fighters worked tirelessly on behalf of individual candidates during the election campaign. The successful results of their political action bode well for the OPFFA, which is holding its annual legislative conference in November.

The election saw the Liberals increase their majority to 71 of the 107 seats in the Ontario Legislature, a surprise result that outpaced pre-election predictions. The party came into the election with 67 seats.

“It was a great night,” LeBlanc says. “We’re very confident the vast majority of the candidates we supported were successful. We were the first group from labour or anywhere else to publicly endorse Dalton McGuinty, and it was all based on the leadership, respect and recognition he has shown to us.” LeBlanc adds that the success in the Ontario election will only help improve the participation and success rates of future OPFFA political action initiatives.

Premier McGuinty gave his acceptance speech at an Ottawa hotel late on election day and descended from the podium into a throng of fire fighters jubilantly waving the “Fire Fighters for McGuinty” signs and wearing the gold-and-black T-shirts.

The OPFFA’s endorsement and campaign support were in recognition of a number of fire fighter advances the Liberals are responsible for in the last four years. The party introduced presumptive cancer and heart legislation for fire fighters in the Ontario Legislature on May 3, and in a surprise move, opposition parties waived debate on the bill, allowing it to pass all three readings on the spot. The legislation was proclaimed shortly afterward.

Since the Liberals came to power under McGuinty in 2003, they have also passed legislation that will improve fire fighter pensions, created a monument to fallen fire fighters, passed legislation protecting fire fighters’ personal car insurance rates from accidents while on duty and upheld union rights in the area of secondary employment.

LeBlanc gives credit to the incredible hard work and dedication to political action to OPFFA Executive Vice President Brian George and Secretary-Treasurer Mark McKinnon, and to the countless local leaders and rank-and-file members who wore and waved the gold and black during the campaign. The OPFFA set up a special election desk to help coordinate information and resources for affiliates involved in local campaigns, which proved very effective.

With the Liberals retaining power, LeBlanc says the OPFFA will now focus on the next round of legislative issues at the provincial level, which include streamlining the arbitration process, addressing mandatory retirement and funding for frontline fire fighters. The OPFFA’s annual Legislative Conference takes place November 27-29 in Toronto.

“We’re going to be introducing our issues and building on those relationships through our lobby and not letting up,” says LeBlanc. “The advantage we have as a result of our political action is the relationship we have built with this particular government and this particular Premier, whereas in the past we were dismissed as a municipal responsibility.”

In keeping with the IAFF’s philosophies of non-partisanship and local autonomy, the OPFFA’s top-level endorsement of McGuinty did not constitute a blanket endorsement of Liberal candidates across Ontario. Local OPFFA affiliates were welcome to support candidates from other parties, and a handful did support New Democratic or Conservative candidates.

“Our motto is to support those who support us, and at the local level it was left to the local’s discretion,” LeBlanc explains. “The emphasis is on supporting fire fighter-friendly candidates and the reality is that as fire fighters we attract candidates from all three parties.”