By visiting scholar Adam Dodek.
One way to analyze the Ontario election results is in terms of a decisive rejection of constitutional change by Ontarians.
Ontarians generally want their premiers and their governments to focus on the business of governing rather than on constitutional change. Premier David Peterson was punished at the polls in 1990 in part for focussing on Meech Lake and Canadian unity and Premier Bob Rae often seemed more interested in constitutional issues like Charlottetown than the more mundane issues that capture the Tim Horton's crowd. Somehow John Tory fell into a similar trap by daring even to raise the issue of funding for faith-based schools. After the Supreme Court of Canada's 1996 Adler decision, the issue of funding for non-Catholic faith-based schools was transferred from the judicial to the political realm. Most politicians knew well enough that religion and politics make for an incediary mix (see Bill Davis' extension of funding for Catholic schools in 1984 and Premier McGuinty's experience with Sharia law from 2004 and 2005) and were content to let the issue lie dormant. Ultimately, Tory was unable to foresee let alone control the firestorm that he had sparked and he was punished at the polls as a result.
The second constitutional lesson from the election was about changing Ontario's electoral system. This also went down to defeat in flames by almost a 2:1 margin. I had thought that it would likely garner a majority of votes but nowhere near the 60% in 60% of Ontario's 107 ridings necessary for it to pass. I was wrong because as a transplanted British Columbian I forgot that Ontarians generally are suspicious of big changes. And changing the electoral systems is capital "C" constitutional change even if Ontario has no single document that is called The Constitution of Ontario (other provinces like BC do have constitutions . . .).
The most concerning aspect of the election constitutionally was the continued downward trend in voter participation: only about 52.8% of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot (unoffical Elections Ontario numbers). At some point, low voter participation risks creating a problem of democratic legitimacy for our electoral system and our governments. Maybe then Ontarians will be more receptive to the consideration of changes to their constitutional structures.