The Politics of Ontario, Canada.

The Province of Ontario is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which operates in the Westminster system of government. The political party that wins the largest number of seats in the legislature normally forms the government, and the party's leader becomes premier of the province, i.e., the head of the government. The functions of the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, are exercised by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. The Lieutenant-Governor is appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada.

Ontario's primary political parties are the centre-right Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party), the centrist Ontario Liberal Party and the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP). The Christian fundementalist Ontario Family Coalition Party and the environmentalist Ontario Green Party have gained some support, but have failed to win any seats in the Legislature.

The Big Blue Machine, 1943-1985

The Progressive Conservative Party dominated Ontario's political system from 1943 to 1985 and earned the nickname of the Big Blue Machine. During this period the party was led by Red Tory (moderate) premiers: George Drew, Leslie Frost, John Robarts and Bill Davis. These governments were responsible for some of the province's most progressive social legislation (including the Ontario Code of Human Rights), the creation of most of Ontario's welfare state and social programs, the creation of many Crown Corporations, and strong economic growth. However, in 1985, the party took a shift to the right, electing Frank Miller as leader at a leadership convention, following the retirement of popular longtime Red Tory Premier Bill Davis. This shift in policy proved to be unpopular. After 42 years of governing Ontario, the 1985 election reduced the Tories to a minority in the Legislature, with only four seats more than the opposition Liberals. The Tories won fewer votes over all than the Liberals. Miller attempted to forge an alliance with the NDP, as Bill Davis did during his minority terms (1975-1981), but this turned out not to be the case. The Liberals of David Peterson and the New Democrats of Bob Rae decided to form a coalition, ousting Frank Miller, and ending the longest political dynasty in Canadian history.

A decade of political upheaval, 1985-1995

Peterson was able to reenergize his party and lead them back into office. The Liberal-NDP coalition of 1985-1987 worked very well with David Peterson at the helm as Premier. In exchange for supporting certain Liberal policies and not defeating Peterson's government in the Legislaure, the Liberals agreed to pass certain NDP policies to which Miller had been unwilling to agree. In the 1987 election, Peterson's Liberals won a substantial majority in the Legislature, ending the two-year-long coalition with the NDP. Peterson's record in office was a mixed one. During his five years in power, Ontario recorded some of its best economic times; however towards the end of his tenure government spending increased. Although his government predicted a surplus, the Liberals plunged the Government of Ontario into a $3 billion deficit by 1990.

The Social Contract

The Liberals paid dearly by holding an election three years into their mandate in 1990. Before Peterson called the election, his government stood at a 54% approval rating in the polls, but the early election call which most people took as arrogance, coupled with the high expectations of teachers, environmentalists, and doctors who came out against him proved to be his undoing. In the most surprising election results in Ontario's history, the NDP was able to win a majority government, however with only 37% of the vote. This government would be Ontario's second socialist government (after the United Farmer's government of Ernest Drury 1919-1923), and it would keep the NDP out of serious contention for power in Ontario for another decade.

The NDP campaigned predominantly on the promise of a public auto insurance system that they did not implement after taking power. They also went broke back promises on electoral reform and increased social spending. To cope with a mounting recession, the New Democrats introduced cutbacks to social spending as well as the Social Contract, which forced public-sector workers to take unpaid "holidays" or "Rae Days" every year. They also introduced wage freezes.

The Social Contract led to most of the labour movement, especially longtime NDP ally Buzz Hargrove and the CAW (Canadian Auto Worker's Union), along with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and other public sector unions turning its backs on Bob Rae, many of their members vowing to bring his government down. Rae also introduced unpopular revenue-raising taxes and operations (like photo radar) that seriously hurt his election prospects. Thousands of party members resigned from the NDP and it became evident that the party was headed for a defeat in the 1995 election.

By 1995, Ontario's unemployment rate was skyrocketing and the deficit was growing bigger, leaving most people convinced that the government of Bob Rae had become ineffective. Commentators predicted an easy win for Lyn Macleod 's Liberals, but the resurgent Progressive Conservative Party of Mike Harris, which had been reduced to third-party status since 1987, made a tremendous comeback and won a majority. Macleod alienated voters by flip-flopping on campaign issues such as civil unions for same-sex couples. Towards the end of the campaign, the Liberals attempted to copy many Tory policies. Mike Harris, on the other hand campaigned on a controversial, but straightforward agenda known as the Common Sense Revolution, promising to solve Ontario's economic woes and problems with lower taxation, smaller government and pro-business policies to create jobs. The 1995 election gave the PC Party a large majority, bringing the Tories back into power, however not under their traditional centrist or Red Tory agenda.

The "Common Sense Revolution", 1995-2003

The new rightwing government of Mike Harris implemented a neoconservative program of cuts to social spending and taxes (the "Common Sense Revolution") that balanced the budget and significantly lowered taxes for most Ontarians (both lower and middle class). It was blamed for widespread failure in the quality of health care and education, and for transfering the costs of many programs from the province to the municipalities ("downloading"). In particular, the government's critics alledged that the government's cuts to the Ministry of the Environment and privatization of water-testing laboratories led to the lack of oversight that caused the "Walkerton tragedy". An outbreak of E. coli bacteria from contaminated water in Walkerton, Ontario caused a number of deaths and illnesses in May 2000. In a resulting inquiry, it was revealed that the government had been warned that such an incident was likely to occur with the hasty privatization of water-testing laboratories, but the government ignored the warning.

However, despite controversies, cuts to social programs and education, and a province-wide anti-government teachers' strike in 1999, Mike Harris was re-elected easily in the 1999 election, defeating Dalton McGuinty's Liberals. His victory was largely due to a poor campaign by McGuinty's Liberals, the creation of many new jobs since Harris had taken office, and his record on tax reduction. Negative campaiging by the Tories, which featured ads claiming that McGuinty was "not up to the job" also helped Harris's re-election bid.

Harris stepped down in 2002 and was replaced by Ernie Eves following a leadership election. Eves's government was chiefly notable for stopping Harris's plan to privatize the public electricity utility, Ontario Power Generation (formerly Ontario Hydro), but not before some parts of the utility had been sold to private interests.

The Liberals return to power

In the October 2003 election, Dalton McGuinty led the Liberals to an impressive victory against Ernie Eves and his controversy-plagued Tories, coming in with a solid majority. McGuinty's major promises revolved around increasing health care funding, unravelling Mike Harris's education reforms, and not raising taxes.

Shortly after the election, however, the former provincial auditor undertook a study that revealed that the Harris-Eves Tories had hidden a deficit of at least $5.6 billion. Minister of Finance Greg Sorbara released a budget introducing tax increases on commodities and businesses, the introduction of health premiums for all but low-income Ontarians, the delisting of health-care services from OHIP. The budget, along with the failure to prevent construction on the environmentally-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine after his election made the McGuinty government unpopular during its first few months. During his second month in office, McGuinty had an approval rating of only 8%, a record low.

However, things improved after his first year in office. The Ontario government was able to negotiate a national health accord with the federal government and the other provinces, free immunization for children was introduced, McGuinty announced plans for the creation of a so called "Green Belt" in the Greater Toronto Area to help control urban sprawl, and plans for the creation of a "Citizen's Assembly" to research electoral reform were also announced. The Tories on the other hand took a shift back to the centre and elected John Tory, a former aide of Bill Davis, to lead the party. Tory opposes the privatization that was advocated by Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, supports the elimination of health premiums and socially has a similar agenda to Dalton McGuinty.

The McGuinty government also brought forward a number of regulatory initiatives including legislation to allow patrons to bring their own wine to restaurants, banning junk food in public schools, outlawing smoking in public places, and requiring students to stay in school until age 18. Following a series of high-profile maulings, the government also moved to ban pit bulls.

In the summer of 2003, an Ontario Court of Appeal rulings resulted in Ontario becoming the first of Canada's provinces and territories to legalize same-sex marriage. (See Same-sex marriage in Ontario.) In response to the court decision, the McGuinty Liberals updated the province's legislation relating to married couples to include homosexual couples.

Overview of Ontario federal politics

In general, Ontario is a mixed bag in terms of political trends, despite the fact that the federal Liberals dominated from 1993 to 2004 due to a 'divided right' between the moderate Progressive Conservative party and strongly conservative Canadian Alliance, the united right of the federal Conservatives has reduced the dominance.

• The Greater Toronto Area, being a highly diverse and multicultural area, tends to be quite liberal on a federal level. But interestingly enough, the GTA or "905 belt" was solidly Progressive Conservative on the provincial level during the 1995 and 1999 elections. And of course historically supported the Tories during their more liberal Red Tory era. It is now a stronghold for the Ontario Liberals, except for a few downtown districts where the NDP are strong. Conservative support is limited to the outer suburbs, where the Tories hold a few seats.

• Southwestern Ontario is similar to the adjacent US Midwest, with the urban areas generally leaning left (especially Windsor which is a union bastion), and the rural areas are moderately conservative, however, they are generally not as conservative as rural parts of surrounding regions of Ontario and neighboring states, primarily due to the industrial nature of the region. The exception is between London and Brantford and areas north and south of that line, which is more conservative and typical of areas in Central Ontario.

• Central and Eastern Ontario are clearly the most conservative areas in Ontario, due to the strong agricultural and religious base, which makes it more similar to parts of Western Canada and much of the rural United States in terms of social conservatism. The exceptions are in central Ottawa, where activist and labour movements are strong, as well as in the easternmost areas which have a very high Franco-Ontarian population and were strongholds for the Liberals (although there are signs that even those areas are turning conservative), however most of the region tends to vote solidly right-wing. There is also a strong anti-Toronto sentiment in this region.

• Most of Northern Ontario is a hotbed for Liberal and NDP support, primarily owing to the highly unionized nature of the region and the high population of First Nations. The southern border areas are more conservative than the northern areas, however, both fiscally and socially.

See also

• Politics of Canada
• List of Canadian political parties#Ontario
• List of Ontario general elections