Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr., Canadian lawyer and politician, was born in
Ottawa, Ontario on
July 19,
1955.
McGuinty is the
Premier of
Ontario; he was sworn in as the province's twenty-fourth premier on
October 23,
2003.
Liberal Leader
The son of politician and professor Dalton McGuinty, Sr, McGuinty earned a science degree from McMaster University and a law degree from the
University of Ottawa before practicing law in Ottawa. MPP for
Ottawa South since
1990, he was elected leader of the
Ontario Liberal Party in
1996 in a surprise victory over front-runner Gerard Kennedy. Kennedy, a former head of
Toronto's Daily Bread food bank, was popular on the
left wing of the party; McGuinty built his core support on the
right wing of the party, and coalesced a wider group seen as an "anybody but Kennedy" movement at the
leadership convention.
The Tories played off McGuinty's low profile as opposition leader to define the Liberal as "not up to the job." A weak performance by McGuinty in the election debate and strong economic growth in
1999 helped reelect
Mike Harris and the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. However, the Liberal leader strongly rallied his party in the final days of the election contest. On election day, the Liberals drew 40% of the vote, the second highest share of Liberal vote in fifty years, and increased the party's share of seats in the Legislature from 30 to 36.
McGuinty's second term as leader was spent readying himself, his caucus and his party for the next election and the chance to govern. McGuinty attracted a new, aggressive team of advisors and threw himself into developing a firm grasp on policy and government. Lowering class sizes, hiring more nurses, increasing environmental protections and holding the line on taxes became McGuinty's signature themes. The Ontario Liberal Party went through a period of significant rebuilding.
Several major controversies embroiled the governing PC Party, including the shooting death of native protester Dudley George at Ipperwash, the deaths of 7 people from tainted water in Walkerton, and the decision to extend government funding to private schools.
Mike Harris announced his resignation in October, 2002. A highly divisive leadership contest between former Finance Minister
Ernie Eves, his successor
Jim Flaherty, and other candidates, damaged the cohesiveness of the governing Tories. Eves, premier after winning that race, faced a litany of new crises, including skyrocketing electricity prices, Minsterial resignations amid expense account controversy, and the decision to introduce the province's budget not in the Legislature, but in an auto parts plant.
The
2003 North America blackout gave Eves increased exposure and rallied some support in his party. The subsequent election featured an early close in the polls to a tie in the first week. However, McGuinty's strong performance on the campaign trail and his campaign slogan's simple invitation to "choose change," caught the imagination of Ontario voters.
A mid-campaign accusation in a PC Party press release that the Liberal leader was an
evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet put Eves and the PC Party on the defensive and reinforced voter opinion that it was time for a change. McGuinty's strong performance in the televised leader's debate and aggressive campaign helped drive him to a massive majority government with 72 of the Ontario Legislature's 103 seats. The PC Party fell to 24 seats, while the left-of-centre
Ontario New Democratic Party lost official party status.
Following the election, the McGuinty government asked the highly respected former Provincial Auditor Erik Peters to examine the province's finances. Peters revealed that the out-going Conservative administration had left a hidden deficit of at least $5.6 billion.
Premier
McGuinty formally took office as premier on October 23,
2003.
The dithering by the previous Conservative government pushed the election into the fall, forcing the McGuinty Liberals to call the Legislature back early to pass key legislation. Major legislation introduced just weeks after the government took office included lower auto insurance rates, roll-backs of corporate taxes to pay for social programs, enshrining publicly-funded medicare into provincial law and a ban on partisan government advertising.
The early days of the McGuinty government also saw a new era of openness at the provincially-owned electricity companies. The winter was punctuated by explosive scandals as friends of the previous Conservative administration were found to have exploited the secrecy of Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One to land lucrative, untendered multi-million dollar consulting contracts.
On
May 18,
2004, Provincial
Finance Minister Greg Sorbara released the McGuinty government's first budget. The centrepiece was a controversial new Health Premium of $300 to $900, staggered to income and dedicated to health funding. Other elements included a four-year plan to tackle the deficit left behind by the Conservatives, free immunization for children, new investments in education to lower class sizes and improve literacy, and major investments to lower waiting times for cancer care, cardiac care, joint replacement and MRI and CT scans.
The Ontario Health Premium became a major issue in the early days of the federal election called the week after the Ontario budget. However, the federal Liberal Party and leader
Paul Martin continued to advocate for a strong publicly-funded health care system. The strong showing of the Liberals in Ontario revitalized the provincial party and their plan for better health care.
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