Dalton McGuinty

The Hon. Dalton McGuinty

Rank:	24th
Term of Office:	October 23, 2003 - present
Predecessor:	Ernie Eves
Date of Birth:	July 19, 1955
Place of Birth:	Ottawa, Ontario
Spouse:	Terri McGuinty
Profession:	Lawyer
Political Party:	Liberal

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. He is only Ontario's second Roman Catholic premier, the first professing that faith since the 19th century.

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 and thus became the Leader of the Opposition at Queen's Park.

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. McGuinty is regarded by some as a moderate fiscal conservative, but is not considered to be a social conservative (he supports same-sex marriage and the country's current abortion laws, although some believe him to be pro-life on a personal level).

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, McGuinty was able to rally 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 himself faced a surprisingly difficult re-election in Ottawa South, but was able to defeat his Progressive Conservative opponent by about 4000 votes.

McGuinty's second term as opposition leader was generally regarded as more successful than his first. With his party consolidated as the primary opposition to the Progressive Conservatives, McGuinty was better able to present his party as the province's "government in waiting". He hired a more skilled group of advisors, and gave fellow caucus member Greg Sorbara a greater role in determining party strategy for the next election. McGuinty also made a serious effort to improve his debating skills, and received coaching from Democratic Party trainers in the United States. He emphasized lowering class sizes, hiring more nurses, increasing environmental protections and "holding the line" on taxes in the buildup to the 2003 election.

McGuinty's chances of forming government were also increased by a number of controversies affecting 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. Harris's successor, Ernie Eves, was also regarded as having made a major misstep in 2003, when he introduced the province's budget in a private auto-parts factory operated by Belinda Stronach (a prominent PC Party supporter), rather than in the provincial legislature.

The 2003 North America blackout gave Eves increased exposure and rallied some support in his party. He called an election immediately after the blackout, and polling showed that the previous Liberal lead had narrowed to a tie in the first week. The rise in Tory support proved to be temporary, however; the Liberals took a commanding lead in the campaign's second week, and remained in that position for until election day.

Some of the Liberal Party's strength was based in a promise to change the combative tone of government, following nine years of Progressive Conservative rule that many regarded as unnecessarily divisive and confrontational. The Progressive Conservatives ultimately played into this strategy by running a series of negative advertisements against McGuinty throughout the campaign. This strategy took a bizarre turn when a low-ranking PC organizer referred to McGuinty as an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet on an official party release.

McGuinty's was widely believed to have won the televised leader's debate, which helped him win a massive majority government with 72 of the Ontario Legislature's 103 seats. The PC Party fell to 24 seats, while the social-democratic Ontario New Democratic Party lost official party status in the legislature. (It would regain it a few months later in a by-election.)

Following the election, the McGuinty government asked 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. The Conservatives responded by questioning the methodology of Peters's approach, and suggested that the McGuinty government was playing up the province's financial difficulties to break or delay some of its campaign spending promises. Most neutral observers, however, agreed that the Conservatives were hiding a deficit of at least two billion dollars during their final year in office.

Premier

McGuinty formally took office as premier on October 23, 2003.

The new government called the Legislature back in session in late 2003, and quickly passed a series of bills relating to its election promises. The government brought in auto insurance reforms (including a price cap), rolled-back a series of corporate and personal tax cuts which had been scheduled for 2004, passed legislation which enshrined publicly-funded medicare into provincial law, provided a set date for the next election, and enacted a ban on partisan government advertising.

The early days of the McGuinty government also saw a move towards greater openness in the provincially-owned electricity companies.

The McGuinty government also benefited from a scandal involving the previous government's management of Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One, which broke in the winter of 2003-04. It was revealed that a number of key figures associated with Mike Harris's "Common Sense Revolution" had received lucrative, untendered multi-million dollar consulting contracts from these institutions; among the figures named in the scandal was Tom Long, regarded by many as the leading figure behind the successful Progressive Conservative campaigns of 1995 and 1999.

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 according to income. Also controversial were the elimination of coverage for major allied health services including eye examinations and physical therapy. Other elements included a four-year plan to tackle the deficit left behind by the Conservatives, free immunization for children, investments in education and 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 a week after the Ontario budget), and nearly derailed Prime Minister Paul Martin's bid for re-election.

An early reputation in the media for breaking promises, whether deserved or not, presents a public relations problem for McGuinty and his government. McGuinty's summer 2004 tour of smaller towns and cities, attempting to reach Ontarians over the heads of the Toronto media, did not initially appear a success. Recent polls have shown reduced support for the government, although the Liberals continue to lead the opposition Progressive Conservatives and NDP.

The recent selection of John Tory as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario may present McGuinty with another challenge. Tory is widely regarded as a more centrist figure than either Harris or Eves, and has not followed the confrontational methods of the previous Conservative leaders. Many believe that Tory could take centrist votes away from McGuinty's Liberals in the next election.

McGuinty has identified health, education, and economic investment in the province's infrastucture as his leading priorities.