The Ontario Liberal majority means Kathleen Wynne is out of excuses

As she gets ready to return to Queen’s Park and kick off another legislative session, Premier Kathleen Wynne has every right to feel pretty great about her surprising majority government victory last week.

But she should also feel a little bit nervous.

Because here’s the thing: With a majority, the Ontario Liberals are out of excuses. They’ll have no one to blame if they don’t succeed in delivering on key promises. Now it’s entirely on them to get things done.

That means working quickly to make good on some of the key items in their election platform.

Take, for example, their pledge to allow for electoral reform. It’s right there in black and white. On page three of their “Making Government Work For Ontarians” platform document, the Liberals promise to “give municipalities the option of using ranked ballots as an alternative to first-past-the-post in their own elections.”

There’s no fathomable reason for any kind of delay on this. The debates have been had — just do it.

The same goes for the party’s commitments on infrastructure spending. The Liberal plan, for example, pledges $25 million over three years to implement a province-wide cycling strategy and direct funding for municipalities to create “up to 400 kilometres of new bike lanes” over the same period.

The government needs to be held to these numbers. $25 million. 400 kilometres. I’ll be counting.

But it’s the Liberal’s transit promises that are most critical. They’ve promised to invest a whopping $15 billion into transit in and around the GTA.

The money is supposed to go to a variety of projects, including all-day 15-minute GO service on electrified rails, LRT in Mississauga and Brampton, a Queen’s Quay East waterfront streetcar line and the downtown relief subway line in Toronto.

In the past, the Liberals at Queen’s Park have been way too eager to come up with excuses to not invest in transit. In 2010, when Wynne was Transportation Minister, she helped come up with a raft of dubious reasons for delaying the planned Transit City LRT lines in Toronto. The Ministry accepted further delays when Mayor Rob Ford came to power at Toronto City Hall, even though council never voted to change the city’s transit plans.

It all adds up to a worrying trend. The Liberals love to announce plans to fund and build transit, but don’t seem as eager to actually, you know, fund and build transit.

That kind of backtracking and inaction shouldn’t fly anymore. Not with the mandate Wynne and her government have given and the legislative power she now holds. Not with such clear and direct promises made in the party platform.

This is a time for Kathleen Wynne to deliver. No excuses. No delays. Just get it done.