Having feted departing Premier Dalton McGuinty on Friday, the Ontario Liberals will today get down to the business of picking his replacement.
On Saturday morning, delegates first heard speeches from former cabinet minister and current top Liberal strategist Greg Sorbara, as well as former Ontario premier and current interim federal Liberal leader Bob Rae and Ontario party president Yasir Naqvi.
Rae said the Liberal party is facing a challenge from conservative opponents, both in the provincial arena and at the federal level.
That's why it is necessary for Liberals "to remind the people of Canada what the costs have been" in electing conservative governments, Rae said when addressing the convention ahead of the morning speeches from the six leadership candidates.
Next up at the convention, each of the six leadership candidates will deliver a speech no longer than 30 minutes — hoopla and supporters' demonstrations included. CBCNews.ca will carry all of the speeches live.
Harinder Takhar, the MPP for Mississauga-Erindale, was the first of the candidates scheduled to speak to the convention on Saturday morning.
First elected to the legislature in 2003, Takhar has held several cabinet portfolios in the McGuinty government.
Following the speeches will be the announcement of the first-ballot voting results sometime after 12 noon.
Those results are largely known because about 1,800 of the convention's 2,200 delegates have pledged first-round support to a specific candidate. After the first ballot, they are free to shift support to any contender. Those committed delegates are joined by about 400 ex-officio members, mostly former candidates and party bigwigs whose support is not pledged to a specific candidate.
The last-place finisher will be forced off each successive ballot until one candidate attains a majority.
Late Friday night, the Ontario Liberal Party extended the registration deadline for eastern Ontario delegates to register at the convention until 2:45 a.m. Saturday, as a major highway crash involving dozens of vehicles delayed some of the delegates on their trip to Toronto.
Sources were telling CBC News that Kathleen Wynne's camp opposed the registration extension, but Wynne organizers said that was not true.
Shifting support
Early on, most will be watching to see where Toronto-area MPP Eric Hoskins, who is expected to finish last in the opening round, shifts his support when he is forced off the ballot.
When speaking with Evan Solomon, the host of CBC Radio's The House, Hoskins said Saturday morning that he would consult with his delegates before deciding where to throw his support.
The voting intervals are spaced about two-and-a-half hours apart, but many expect they could take longer. The convention floor is located on a separate level than the voting area, posing a possible bottleneck that could delay voting.
Also, delegates will mark paper ballots that must be counted by hand. The possibility of recounts could cause more delays.
Delegates entering the convention will also face a gauntlet of protesters outside the doors of the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Representatives of teachers unions arrived early Saturday morning to picket the site, and a mass rally and demonstration by labour groups is planned for Saturday afternoon.
More than half the committed delegate support is split between two candidates: Don Valley West MPP Kathleen Wynne and former Windsor West MPP Sandra Pupatello. In third place is Gerard Kennedy, who lost to Dalton McGuinty by 140 votes on the fifth ballot in 1996.
Most expect one of Pupatello or Wynne to emerge victorious Saturday, with the victor being the one who can most effectively gather up delegate support from the other candidates.
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