Scott Stinson: Dylan Marando tells Ontario Liberals some things they want to hear, and some they don't
The former policy adviser says he wants Liberals to get back to what they're good at: governing
Dylan Marando has some of the trappings of a long shot entrant in the Ontario Liberal leadership race.
When he went on a tour of the province’s northern ridings, he slept in tents alongside his campaign manager to save money. (Conveniently, she is also his wife, Elise Maiolino.) He’s trailing the fundraising race, in fifth spot among the five candidates trying to ultimately unseat Doug Ford. And, having never run for elected office before, he’s lower on name recognition than some of his rivals.
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But the 39-year-old introduced himself with something of a bang at last month’s leadership debate, delivering the line of the night in a sleepy affair. “The milk has soured on Doug Ford,” Marando said. “And soon, it’s going to get chunky.”
A memorable, if somewhat gnarly, metaphor.
Somewhat surprisingly for a guy who has never done this before, Marando appeared confident and assured on the Brampton stage that night. He comes across the same way in a recent conversation at a Toronto coffee shop, acknowledging that he’s a relative outsider in the race but pleased with the momentum of his campaign.
“I say this with all the humility I can muster, I’m a winner,” he says. “I worked for (Dalton) McGuinty in his premier’s office, I worked for (Kathleen) Wynne in her premier’s office, I worked for (Justin) Trudeau in his PMO, all my experience comes on the winning side of politics, so I know how to win. I know how to govern, and, ultimately, I think that’s the skill set a voter in a general election is looking for.”
But first, the former policy adviser has to convince the voters in a Liberal race that lost a bit of momentum last week when the party was shut out in three provincial byelections. The party has polled near the governing PCs on province-wide surveys for months, but the three losses, all in greater Toronto, suggest there is much work to be done to rebuild the brand. And on that front, Marando has a message that would appeal to a lot of party supporters: Liberals, he argues, are good at being in government.
“I describe myself as a meat-and-potatoes Liberal,” he says. “The meat and potatoes part is publicly funded education, publicly funded health care and empowering local governments to make investments in local infrastructure. I don’t think the assignment is much more complicated than that.”
Marando says that Ford, for all of his grand visions like an expanded Toronto airport and a tunnel under the 401, had been unable to deliver on the basics.
“So in some ways, my bid is pretty boring,” he says “Get back to doing all the things that I’d argue Premier McGuinty and Premier Wynne were pretty good at, and recognize that government isn’t very good at picking winners and losers in the economy.”
But if Liberals might like hearing about the good old days when they were in charge, Marando does have a few opinions that are not widely shared among them.
Asked if the Liberals can take any lessons from Ford, who has won three elections without ever being particularly popular, Marando says, “I do think stylistically he’s instructive as a politician. I do think he has an ability to read the room, and he has an ability to speak the language that that folks are speaking.”
But he also says the premier hasn’t delivered on many of his promises.
“He says all the right things, but health care isn’t any better than it was years ago. Schools aren’t any better. But I think — and many of my Liberal colleagues might not might not share this perspective — he probably gets up in the morning and wants to do the right thing. I don’t think he’s being insincere when he when he’s talking to Ontarians, but for whatever reason, he and his team have demonstrated incapacity to follow through on the things that they’re talking about.”
That is some distance from the most frequent criticisms of Ford levelled at Queen’s Park, which is that he is only looking out for his rich buddies and cronies, but Marando says he “doesn’t want to assign malice” to the premier.
“We’re not in his head. We’re not in his heart, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. So I’m going to assume that Doug wants to do the right thing, but that’s not enough to be premier.”
Marando does point to a sharp point of contrast with Ford on the premier’s recent embrace of public safety as a wedge issue, highlighted by government advertisements that tout tougher drug laws and prison expansions.
“I think Ford’s bragging about bigger prisons is the most obvious admission of failure by a provincial government,” he says. “I get chills every time I hear those advertisements… And Ford’s bragging about the prisons demonstrates not just a callousness and a waste of tax dollars, but a clear indication that he doesn’t understand how to address this issue.”
And yet Marando acknowledges that problems related to drugs and homelessness in city centres throughout Ontario will not be easily solved.
On homeless encampments, he says, “I think both sides of the debate —the blue folk, the red folk, the orange folk — have to admit that there isn’t a neat and tidy answer here.”
Marando notes that some on the left tend to view any such encampment as untouchable.
“I’ll admit, a few years ago, I was sympathetic to that argument,” he says. “But the longer I see folks unhoused, and the more I see the damage that is being done to individuals and families and communities as a result of mental health challenges and addiction challenges, alongside homelessness, the more I think we don’t have this right. I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t think the answer is as straightforward as breaking up encampments. I don’t think the answer is as straightforward as protecting encampments at all costs. What I do know is that whatever we’ve been doing for the last decade isn’t working.”
It’s unusual for a politician to admit to not having an answer for a problem, but Marando hasn’t been one for long. In a Liberal race in which every member will have a vote, that puts him at a disadvantage. But with plenty of time before the leadership convention in late November, he hopes to keep making an impression.
“The hill for me in a leadership race is steep, I’m not that deluded,” he says. “But in a general election, I think I’ve got a pretty good shot at beating Ford. And the more people see me in these town halls with the parties organizing, or on debate stages, or just learn more about me because honestly, no one knew who I was in April. I think they’re realizing, yeah, you know, this guy’s got something.”
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