Joseph Cordiano. McGuinty's policies dealing with redistribution and sitting MPPs gave the senior MPP first choice in a redistributed riding, and Cordiano was the more senior of the two (he had served since 1985). He instead ran in the neighbouring riding of Parkdale—High Park, which contained about one fifth of his previous constituency, mostly the affluent Baby Point neighbourhood. He faced an interesting challenge from Annamarie Castrilli, another former Liberal leadership challenger who had defected to the governing Progressive Conservatives on the last sitting day of the legislature. Media reportage at the time anticipated that this would be a close race, due to the perceived relative strength of the three main parties being almost equally divided in this newly constituted constituency. The Progressive Conservatives were re-elected, forming another majority government. Despite the Conservatives' good showing across the province, they did not win a single seat in the old City of Toronto area; and, Kennedy won his seat with large plurality, with his closest rival, Castrilli, about 10,000 votes behind. He became opposition critic for the high-profile Education portfolio. Minister of education The Liberals won a majority in the 2003 Ontario provincial election, and Kennedy was re-elected in Parkdale-High Park with about 58 percent of the vote (his nearest opponent received 16 percent). He was appointed Minister of Education on October 23, 2003. Under the two previous governments, the Education portfolio had been marked by considerable labour strife, due to either the austerity measure known as the Social Contract under the Bob Rae government, or school board restructuring under the Mike Harris government. In the spring of 2005, Kennedy announced the establishment of a provincial framework in teacher's negotiations, which would see teacher's salaries increase by approximately 10.5 percent over four years in exchange for four years of labour peace. The framework included priorities such as workplace preparation courses and English as a Second Language programs. On October 26, Kennedy was awarded the inaugural Ontario Student Trustees' Association "Award of Distinction" for his contributions to education, including his expansion of the role of student trustee. Federal politics 2006 federal Liberal leadership race On April 5, 2006 Kennedy resigned as Minister of Education to pursue the federal Liberal Leadership. Premier McGuinty, who admitted that finding a replacement was difficult, was reported to have set that day as a deadline for Kennedy to make a decision in order to prevent the leadership speculation