Ontario Elects 1st Gay Premier

Canada's Liberal party of Ontario made history twice yesterday by choosing the province's first female leader and its first openly gay leader, the Ottawa Citizen reports. At the governing party's leadership convention, Kathleen Wynne beat Sandra Pupatello by 1,150 to 866 on the third ballot to become Ontario's new premier. The vote signals a shift to the left for Liberals (really Canada's center party) and may mean that the provincial parliament will actually function again: Outgoing premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature when he stepped down in October. (More Canadian Liberal Party stories.)