CBC News Network was Canada’s most watched network for news and analysis of Kathleen Wynne’s historic victory in the race to succeed Dalton McGuinty on Jan. 26, trouncing the competition. Canadian audiences built steadily throughout the nail-biting day, with 2.5 million Canadians tuning in to CBC News Network’s coverage of the stunning victory by Kathleen Wynne between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Viewers peaked at 589,000 between 5 and 5:30 p.m. ET, only moments away from the final ballot results, catapulting Kathleen Wynne into being Ontario’s first soon-to-be female Premier, and Canada’s first openly gay politician to lead a province.

“Our coverage stood out as exciting, insightful and immediate, and it’s inspiring to see that Canadians trusted CBC News Network for breaking news on Kathleen Wynne’s victory on Saturday,” said Jennifer McGuire, General Manager and Editor in Chief of CBC News and Centres. “These numbers are a reflection of our engaging broadcast and incredible talent working at CBC News - we stood above the rest in every possible way.”

CBC News Network teed up the coverage beginning on Friday night, with Power & Politics with Evan Solomon delivering in-depth analysis at 5 p.m., and continued with live coverage of Dalton McGuinty’s farewell speech. Throughout the day on Saturday, CBC News Network’s top political team, including Nancy Wilson, Michael Serapio, Christine Birak, and Nil Koksal provided breaking news from the convention floor at Maple Leaf Gardens, and had the latest round-by-round results.

CBC News Toronto lead local news coverage on television with Nil Koksal, while CBC Radio Toronto filed hourly newscasts followed by a province-wide news special, hosted by Kimberly Gale as soon as the winner was announced.

CBCNews.ca‘s coverage of the Ontario Liberal Leadership Convention attracted nearly 106,000 unique visitors on Saturday. The LIVE Liberal Convention coverage page was a key destination for Canadians, with over 26,000 viewers requesting the live stream throughout the day.

At CBC Radio, The House with host Evan Solomon broadcast live from the convention floor on Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. ET at cbc.ca/thehouse, and on CBC Radio One at 9 a.m. ET. CBC Radio One covered all of the breaking news and analysis, with Ontario Today with Kathleen Petty taking calls about the winner on Monday at 12 noon ET.

For more than 75 years, CBC has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, Internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages, plus five languages for international audiences. In 2011, CBC/Radio-Canada celebrated 75 years of serving Canadians and being at the centre of the democratic, social and cultural life of Canada.

CBC’s brand new team of in-house publicists are delivering a comprehensive publicity service for all CBC programming and events. For a complete list of publicity contacts and for more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the new CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre.

Corey Black, News and Current Affairs Publicist, CBC

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