Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty McGuinty’s wife, family describe premier as serious, hardworking family man By Keith Leslie

Premier Dalton McGuinty

Who: Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty

Personal: Now 52, he was born in Ottawa. One of 10 children. Married since 1980 to Terri, a teacher. They have four children, all in their 20s.

Experience: McGuinty has a bachelor of science degree from McMaster University and earned a law degree at the University of Ottawa. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 1990, representing Ottawa-South and became Ontario Liberal Party leader in 1996. He was elected premier in October 2003.

Quote: “I’m proud of our record. I’m proud of how we turned a $5.6-billion deficit into a surplus situation, proud of the investments and turnarounds we’ve achieved in health care, education, the economy and the environment. I think we’ve come a long way, and I’ll be asking Ontarians for a renewed mandate.”

As a boy, Dalton McGuinty was as serious and studious as he has been as premier of Ontario, a straight-shooting hard worker who learned politics at his father’s knee while other kids were playing sports or hanging out with their friends.

“It’s what you see — he’s not a partier, he’s not going to slap you on the back and try and cajole you,” McGuinty’s younger brother Dylan said in a recent interview.

“He’s a hard-working guy.”

Dalton was 10 and Dylan just eight when the pair first worked the political circuit in Ottawa, handing out Liberal pamphlets before returning to campaign headquarters for their reward: a can of pop.

“We had, I guess, a different kind of upbringing,” the younger McGuinty recalled.

“My father was always on the sidelines in politics, so when Dalton and I were young, we were involved in campaigns. Our first election was 1965 in Ottawa South provincial. We were that young, getting in there.”

Following in the elder brother’s footsteps wasn’t always easy, because the future premier set a very high standard to follow in everything from grades in school to his good behaviour, he added.

“It was very difficult for me because the example he would set. If I were to breach any of the rules, it would make me look all the worse,” he said with a chuckle.

“Sibling rivalry being what it is, (Dalton) would be a bit of a pest in that he would be so damn compliant, obedient.”

Dylan described his brother as a “methodical and rational“ person — much more so than his siblings, at least when it finally came time for McGuinty to propose marriage to his long-time high school sweetheart Terri.

“We joke about it in our family,” said Dylan. “Not one other kid in my family dated for eight years before popping the question.”

McGuinty admitted he took some ribbing from his family over the long courtship — proof positive that he’s not prone to rash decisions.

“There’s probably a few conclusions you could draw — one is I don’t rush into things, and when I do make a decision I spend a lot of time mulling it over,” McGuinty said in a recent interview.

“I’m slow to rush into things, but very, very loyal and very dedicated, not easily dissuaded from doing what I honestly believe is the right thing to do.”

McGuinty’s father, Dalton Sr., was always politically active — he was an Ottawa school board trustee for 16 years — but wasn’t elected to the Ontario legislature as the Liberal member for Ottawa South until 1987.

He held the seat until he died in 1990, when McGuinty himself took over — in part because his father’s campaign signs were still in the garage, complete with the name Dalton McGuinty.

Nearly 20 years after his father’s death, McGuinty said one of the most difficult things he’s ever done in politics was choosing to break a 2003 promise to freeze taxes after the Liberals discovered upon taking office that they were inheriting a $5.6-million deficit.

“I made a specific commitment not to raise taxes, and if I have one regret rising from my 17 years in politics, that’s it,” he said.

“I had to break that commitment.”

His father was a “powerful influence” who urged his 10 sons and daughters to “always look out for each other and for those who may be less fortunate,” McGuinty said.

“My dad’s standard lecture was: ‘Kids, it’s never going to be good enough to grow up, get a job and pay taxes. You better find a way to make a contribution, find some way to build on the foundation that has been handed down to all of you on a silver platter.”’

With his father at university or attending school board meetings in the evening, and with his mother working shifts as a nurse, McGuinty found himself organizing his nine brothers and sisters for their daily routines, something he said comes naturally to him.

“I felt — and (my parents) made me feel — that I had a job to do, and my job was to make sure the dishes got done, the homework got done, the dog got walked, the grass got cut, the garbage was put out,” he said.

“I took that on at an early age, and I enjoyed taking on that responsibility, and politics has become a natural extension of that.”

McGuinty loves to remind voters that he is one of 10 children, and usually does so with a self-deprecating joke. One of his favourite lines: “I can honestly say I never slept alone until I was married.”

The folksy way McGuinty talks about his own four grown children, growing up in a large family and his father’s job as a professor of romantic poetry wins over more people than his political pronouncements ever do.

“After 10 children, my mother said, ‘OK, enough romantic poetry,”’ he chuckled.

Unlike most of his predecessors, McGuinty doesn’t seem to have aged much at all during four years as premier. He claims to have a few more grey hairs, but they’re barely visible, and he hasn’t gained weight or undergone any of the other tell-tale signs of an overly stressful job.

Nor has McGuinty earned the reputation as a federal statesman that’s usually reserved for Ontario premiers.

What little national profile he has comes as a result of his frequent claim that Ottawa doesn’t treat Ontario the same as other provinces when it comes to their fiscal partnership.

McGuinty has also picked fights with other provinces over changes to the revenue-sharing equalization formula and caps on industrial emissions that lead to climate change.

Still, he hasn’t made a big impact on the national scene like predecessors Bill Davis and David Peterson, both of whom were known for weighing in on the constitutional issues of the day.

McGuinty’s website, Dalton.ca, is a true family affair, with clips of old family movies and testimonials from siblings, including another younger brother, David — a federal MP who represents the same riding as McGuinty.

“To know Dalton is to know, for example, discipline,” David McGuinty said.

“How else can you possibly score as high as he did in university with nine siblings running around the house, while you’re sharing a bedroom with three others, get yourself into law school, do extremely well, while you’re married with two young children? That comes from discipline, and it’s something he adopted from a very young age.”

The site also features an interview with McGuinty’s wife Terri, who talks about how he proposed marriage — “he was very serious,” she recalls — and also offers her own description of her husband of 27 years.

“He’s just a regular guy.”