For 42 consecutive years, from 1943 until 1985, Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives held the magic formula for staying in power.
It started with good leaders. George Drew emerged victorious in the 1943 election with a bare four-seat minority government, holding off the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. (The CCF morphed into the NDP two decades later.)
But even after Drew left to become the federal Tory leader in 1948, the party just kept winning. Leslie Frost, John Robarts, and Bill Davis represented both generational change and continuity, making the PC party feel like a comfortable pair of shoes for many Ontarians. The party owned the broad ideological centre of the political spectrum, tacking right and then left as circumstances required.
But in 1985, as the party sought to replace Davis, the PCs diverted from their traditional formula. Convention delegates chose Frank Miller, a likable, bilingual, Scotsman from Muskoka, but someone who was actually older than his predecessor. It was as if the majority of delegates said, Who cares about generational change? Who cares about moderate, pragmatic red Toryism? We want a harder, more conservative approach — and Frank’s our guy.
Almost instantly, the successful Tory coalition began showing signs of strain. Many of the moderates who had run the show for 42 straight years were sent packing, as the Miller folks put their stamp on the party. While an affable guy that many people liked, Miller did not seem to represent the increasingly multicultural, feminist, and urban elements of Ontario, which were now on the rise.
But David Peterson did. He had won the Liberal leadership three years earlier and looked like he was going nowhere politically, particularly when four of his most influential caucus members bolted in the summer of 1984 to join John Turner’s federal Liberals. By January 1985, polls showed only 10 per cent of Ontarians could identify Peterson. He wasn’t a dead man walking, but pretty close.
The tide turned once Miller called the election for May 2, 1985. Peterson, his wife Shelley, herself an actress, and the couple’s three young children looked like a thoroughly modern — and photogenic — Ontario family. Miller looked too old (even though he was only 58) and too yesterday. Peterson promised beer and wine in corner stores; pay equity; an end to OHIP premiums and doctors’ billing patients beyond what the OHIP fee schedule allowed; more money for social housing; and a more activist government from what he called “the radical middle.” Miller had no counterpunch, and his fondness for Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher didn’t endear him to broad swaths of moderate Ontarians. Crowds at Tory campaign events were small and lackluster.
Outgoing premier Bill Davis congratulates his successor, Frank Miller, at the January 1985 leadership convention. Dennis Timbrell (far right) and Larry and Carole Grossman (middle) look on. (Steve Paikin)
When the election results came in, it was essentially a tie. In a minority parliament, Miller’s PCs took 52 seats to the Liberals’ 48. But Peterson’s Liberals garnered 30,000 more votes, giving the red team some added legitimacy. It was left to NDP leader Bob Rae to negotiate with both the PCs and Liberals, as he would play kingmaker. Ultimately, he agreed to an “accord” of policy items that the Liberals would enact, with NDP support. The Tories suggested there was something unconstitutional about the second-place party having the right to govern, but their claims had no foundation: our system gives the right to govern to whichever party can command the confidence of the legislature. In this case, Peterson, with Rae’s backing, could do just that.
And so, on June 18, 1985, Liberals and New Democrats combined forces to defeat the Miller government, thus bringing an end to 42 straight years of Tory rule.
Of the 18 Ontario elections that have happened in my lifetime, I’ve always believed the one in 1985 was the most historically significant. Despite repeated efforts for decades, the opposition parties could never quite dent the Tory armor. In fact, from 1945 to 1975, the Tories enjoyed 30 consecutive years of majority rule. They just seemed unbeatable.
When Peterson was sworn in as premier, it was as if an earthquake had hit Queen’s Park. Many people joked that they wanted to drive by the building after the new government was sworn in — they wanted to be sure the building hadn’t collapsed without the reliable Tories in power.
Just as the 1985 election ushered in historic changes, it also presaged bigger changes to come. Five years later, the first (and still only) NDP government was elected. Five years after that, Miller’s brand of ideological conservatism finally had its moment in the sun, as Mike Harris ushered in a “common sense revolution.” But eight years later, the Liberals were back under Dalton McGuinty and then Kathleen Wynne, followed 15 years later by Doug Ford’s three-peat victories.
The 1985 election showed Ontarians that the days of multi-generational dynasties were now over. Our elections would now (mostly) be much more competitive, with no party entitled to dynasties comprised of four or five leaders over time.
And that all began 40 years ago today.
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