Would-be premiers Kathleen Wynne and Sandra Pupatello
battled for the lead in crucial delegate selection meetings for the
Ontario Liberal leadership late Saturday as party members spend the
weekend picking the people who will be eligible to vote for their
new leader.
   
The Liberal Party reported early Sunday that Pupatello, who left
politics in 2011, had pulled ahead with 248 committed first-ballot
delegates after 62 of 63 meetings from Saturday's voting had been
tallied.
   
The meetings took place in about half of the province's ridings
in the north, south-east and the suburban Toronto area.
   
``I'm feeling very optimistic heading into the next round of
voting,'' said Pupatello, who has the most support among the Liberal
caucus and cabinet ministers, who are also eligible to vote for the
new leader.
   
Heading into the weekend voting, Pupatello had said she expected
to be in second place behind the well-organized Wynne in securing
first-ballot support.
   
Wynne, a former education minister, was second with 229 committed
delegates in the preliminary voting from Saturday, while Gerard
Kennedy, who lost two previous bids for the Ontario and federal
Liberal leaderships, was third with 121 delegates.
   
Wynne's campaign team said in an email that she did well in the
north and in some rural ridings the Liberals currently do not hold,
although Pupatello took the majority of delegates in Timmins-James
Bay and they took six delegates each in Algoma-Manitoulin, another
northern riding.
   
Former government services minister Harinder Takhar was fourth
with 113 delegates in the preliminary results, followed by former
cabinet minister Charles Sousa with 87.
   
Former children's' services minister Eric Hoskins had 49
delegates, and 33 delegates were elected as independents heading
into the convention to pick Dalton McGuinty's successor.
   
Liberals are picking 16 delegates from each riding across the
province to attend the leadership convention in Toronto Jan. 25-27,
and voting will continue Sunday in the rest of the ridings, which
include the south-west and south-central areas as well as the city
of Toronto.
   
A total of more than 1,700 delegates will be joined by another
600 former MPPs, MPs, party executives and others eligible to vote
for the new leader, who will automatically become Ontario's next
premier.
   
Over 44,000 party members are eligible to vote in the delegate
selection process, which is the first real indicator of where the
six candidates for leader stand.
   
Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray dropped out of the race
Thursday and threw his support behind Wynne, who also served as
transportation minister and minister of aboriginal affairs.
   
Pupatello, who served alongside McGuinty in opposition and at the
cabinet table, was minister of economic development and trade during
his second term, but opted not to seek re-election in 2011 when the
Liberals were reduced to a minority government.
   
The leadership race was triggered last October by McGuinty's
surprise decisions to resign and prorogue the legislature until a
new leader was selected, automatically killing hearings scheduled to
begin the next day into the hundreds of millions of dollars spent to
kill to gas plants in two Liberal-held ridings.

(The Canadian Press)