1985 LIBERALS: HOW THE PETERSON GOVERNMENT BROKE THE MOLD
Philip Dewan
Try to imagine an Ontario where it is legal to pay women less than men for work of equal value.
Where your personal and private information can be shared by government agencies without your agreement, and citizens have no legal right to key information on government activities.
Where employers can arbitrarily refuse to negotiate with unions when workers collectively vote to organize.
Where doctors can charge patients any amount for essential health services, above and beyond OHIP.
And, to add insult to injury, where you pay a regressive OHIP premium that impacts the poor far more than the well off.
Picture a province where no person of colour has ever held a Cabinet role or filled a major parliamentary position.
Where the number of women who have been appointed Ministers can be counted on one hand – with a digit to spare. And where even fewer females have served as Deputy Ministers, the highest level in the public service.
Where a Franco-Ontarian has no right to essential provincial services in one of our country’s official languages.
An Ontario where a gay person or couple can be refused housing and other fundamental rights based solely on their sexual orientation.
Try to conceive of an Ontario with virtually no public role in providing childcare, and few school boards offered junior kindergarten.
One with no effective rent control.
No government office or Minister responsible for Native Affairs.
No Blue Box program for recycling.
Where there are minimal controls over what can spew from smokestacks or drains at mills, smelters and factories, and industries are free to spill chemicals and walk away without liability to clean up their messes.
Where Sunday shopping is banned but smoking in workplaces allowed.
Where the budget has not been balanced in decades, and the net debt to GDP ratio had tripled despite strong economic growth.
Imagine all of this.
Or, if you are over 40, remember it.
Because that was Ontario in early 1985 – until a Liberal government led by Premier David Peterson enacted five years of dramatic reforms that modernized and transformed Ontario.
The election of May 2,1985 changed Canada’s most populous province in ways that still reverberate today.
When Premier Frank Miller called an election only six weeks after succeeding Bill Davis as Progressive Conservative leader, his party had governed Ontario for a remarkable 42 years.
Few expected that to change. The Tories went into the fight with an imposing 20-point polling lead.
While Liberal leader David Peterson had built a strong legislative reputation in opposition, most observers expected a solid but uninspiring campaign.
Instead, Peterson’s relative youth (42), energy, and progressive ideas struck a chord with the public, in contrast to Miller (58), best known for his plaid jackets and folksy manner.
As the 38-day campaign unfolded, Liberals were increasingly buoyed by Peterson’s performance. He was upbeat in an aggressive schedule of events, photo ops, and daily scrums as he rolled out a progressive platform on issues like environmental protection, open government, fair labour laws, and economic balance.
Photos of the Liberal leader smiling at a Jamaican patty shop in Toronto’s Kensington market or jogging through the streets of Windsor contrasted with the low-bridge campaign the PCs staked out for Miller, who refused to debate and found his formal events drawing sparse crowds.
Still, few expected the stunning results that came in on the evening of May 2nd.
The Liberals won the popular vote, with 37.9% support to the PC’s 37.2%, though the PCs took 52 seats (a loss of 18) to the Liberals 48 (up by 14.)
The NDP, who had hoped to return to Official Opposition status under Bob Rae, trailed well behind at 23.6 % of the vote and 25 seats (a gain of 4.)
As the party with the most seats the Conservatives had the right to try to win the confidence of the House, but the government had little chance of surviving.
The Liberals and NDP soon negotiated “An Agenda for Reform” which spelled out actions a Liberal government would implement, based on common campaign planks: a ban on extra billing by doctors, freedom of information legislation, equal pay for work of equal value, environmental protections, and much more.
The Miller government was duly defeated on a motion of confidence.
On June 26th, in brilliant sunshine on the front lawn of the legislative grounds, David Peterson was sworn in as the 20th Premier of Ontario.
With him were colleagues who would serve as Ministers in one of the strongest cabinets ever assembled, including Ian Scott, Jim Bradley, Murray Elston, Elinor Caplan, Sean Conway, Alvin Curling, John Sweeney, and Bob Nixon.
It was a particularly sunny moment for the latter, whose father had been the last Ontario Liberal Premier, more than four decades earlier.
Two years later, the Liberals would romp to one of the largest majority governments in history and the caucus would be joined by more key players, including Lyn McLeod, Charles Beer, and Chaviva Hošek.
Yet, by September 1990, it was all over. The government was turned out by a public soured by what was perceived as a self-serving early election call and Peterson’s focus on the ill-fated Meech Lake constitutional accord.
The Peterson government is remembered today largely for that dramatic arc from upset to landslide to collapse within five years. Yet, two more important stories came out of those five years of activist government.
First, the election of May 1985 changed party dynamics in Ontario for good. The PC hegemony as an immovable force in the centre-right was demolished. Voters have subsequently shown that they can and will exercise their political options as times demand.
Since 1985, there have been 20 years of Liberal government (under three Premiers), 15 years of Tory rule and counting (also three Premiers) and five years of NDP (one Premier.)
Unlike Alberta, it’s hard to imagine Ontario ever returning to multiple decades of single party rule. The Peterson government broke the mold.
Second, on the policy front the Peterson government brought in a raft of legislative and parliamentary changes that reshaped the province. These reforms reflected the demographics and sensibilities of a new Ontario that had been emerging during the late 20th century and positioned the province to embrace international competitiveness and technological innovation for the 21st.
Does this sound a bit grandiose for a short-term administration? Consider the record.
David Peterson and his colleagues passed Ontario’s first freedom of information and protection of privacy legislation, banned extra billing by doctors, eliminated OHIP premiums, fostered the creative media boom of “Hollywood North”, and implemented full funding to Catholic schools.
They strongly supported workers and unions through first-contract legislation, workers’ compensation expansion, and pension reforms.
To stimulate innovation and wealth creation, Peterson set up a Premier’s Council with a $1 billion Technology Fund, created academic centres of excellence, and drove trade expansion to Asia and Europe to counterbalance the federal free trade push with the U.S.
Peterson and Treasurer Bob Nixon brought in Ontario’s first balanced budget in 20 years.
Environment Minister Jim Bradley led historic environmental reforms, including the spills bill, the acid rain control program, the blue box, and air and water emission controls.
The new government reflected Ontario's diversity, appointing the province’s first Black and first female Jewish ministers, Canada's first Chinese-Canadian minister, and the first Indigenous and South Asian deputy ministers.
It vastly expanded the number of women in senior public service roles and appointments, including eight female ministers, compared with four in the prior 118 years since Confederation, and nine female Deputy Ministers, versus one in place when they took office.
It introduced human rights protections for sexual orientation, the French Language Services Act, and equal pay for work of equal value.
It spread the benefits of government outside of Toronto, moving more than 1,200 permanent high paying jobs to northern Ontario and the headquarters of Agriculture and Food to Guelph.
It put an end to a patronage system so rampant that every job from the clerks in the LCBO to the highest positions in government required party fealty.
The legacy of this innovative period in Ontario history still resonates in rights, freedoms, laws, and programs that we now consider so fundamental, we take them for granted.
With diversity, equity and inclusion under fire, the need to broaden world trade more essential than ever in the face of U.S. nationalist retrenchment, and research-driven innovation critical to success in the AI world, there is much to gain from building on the legacy of an extraordinary five years that began 40 years ago this month.
The legacy of one of the most innovative periods in Ontario political history continues to resonate today in rights, freedoms, laws, and programs that we now consider so fundamental, we take them for granted.
The 40th anniversary of this government is a good time to look back and remember all that was accomplished, as well as the lessons we can draw for the challenges of today.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Philip Dewan - Philip Dewan is Partner and cofounder of Counsel Public Affairs Inc., former Director of Policy for Premier David Peterson, and co-editor of an upcoming book on the Peterson government from University of Toronto Press. An abridged version of this op-ed by Philip Dewan can be found in the Toronto Star.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Air Quotes Media. Read more opinion contributions via QUOTES from Air Quotes Media.