Steve Paikin - Paikin and the Premiers: Personal Reflections on a Half-Century of Ontario Leaders

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Paikin
and the
Premiers

Personal Reflections
on a Half Century of
Ontario Leaders

Steve Paikin

Dedication

For Francesca Grosso

The premier in my home

and

William G. Davis

Still The Premier

to so many Ontarians

Contents

Introduction

B ooks often come together in strange ways.

A few years ago, the former Progressive Conservative MP, now author and publisher, Patrick Boyer and I were swapping stories about our shared love of politics. During the course of that conversation, he pointed out something that hadnt occurred to me.

Throughout my three decades in journalism, Ive had the opportunity to interview all eight premiers of Ontario. And seven years ago I wrote a book about former premier John P. Robarts, who won his first election in 1963. Patrick wondered: did I realize I therefore had a connection with every Ontario premier of the past half century?

No, I hadnt. But when you put it that way, I guess its true.

You must have a ton of interviews with all of these premiers in the archives at TVO, Patrick continued, referring to Ontarios provincial public broadcaster, created by former premier William Davis more than forty years ago.

Absolutely, I replied.

And with your knowledge of Robarts from the book you wrote, theres half a century of insider knowledge about how these guys did what they did. Theres a book in there somewhere, Steve, he said.

You are now holding in your hands the ultimate outcome of that conversation. The more I thought about Patricks words, the more I realized, yes, through my privileged perch, first as a Queens Park reporter for CBC-TV, and then over twenty years hosting five different programs at TVO, I have indeed had the opportunity to get to know the last nine premiers of Ontario a little better than the average citizen. And as I look back on the transcripts of those interviews, I cant help but think that they somewhat reflect that first draft of history journalists try to write. The key issues of the day are all there, providing a window into what Ontarians cared about, obsessed about, fretted about, and delighted in at the time.

So, in this book, youll find interviews Ive done with:

• a man who became premier at the tender age of just forty-one, but who held on to the job longer than anyone else in the twentieth century: William Grenville Davis ;
• the man who replaced him and sadly (for him) presided over the end of the forty-two-year-long Tory dynasty: Frank Stuart Miller ;
• the man who became the first Liberal premier of Ontario in more than four decades: David Robert Peterson ;
• the man who shocked the entire country by becoming Ontarios first and so far only NDP premier: Robert Keith Rae (who would go on to surprise his former fellow New Democrats a decade and a half later by running for the leadership of the federal Liberals);
• the man who did what hadnt been done in more than seven decades, by moving his party from third place to government in just one election: Michael Deane Harris ;
• the man who helped Harris implement his Common Sense Revolution , then quit politics, only to come back by popular demand and become the first Conservative premier to fail to win an election in seven decades: Ernest Larry Eves ;
• the man who seemed hopelessly out of the race to lead his party, coming fourth on both the first and second ballots, but who somehow won on the fifth ballot and became the first Liberal premier in Ontario in 128 years to win three consecutive elections: Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr. ; and
• the woman who broke two demographic barriers in one fell swoop in January 2013, and, as this book goes to press, has one of the most oppressive to do lists of any new premier ever: Kathleen ODay Wynne .

As for the ninth premier, I was only a year old when John Parmenter Robarts became what was then called prime minister of Ontario. (His successor, William Davis, changed the title to premier of Ontario, figuring Canada only needed one prime minister at a time.) So not only did I never interview Robarts, I never even saw him.

Fortunately, a former TVO colleague of mine once hosted a remarkably eclectic program called The Education of Mike McManus . Mike interviewed guests as varied as author Margaret Laurence, actor/director Warren Beatty, chicken king Colonel Harlan Sanders, and 1960s revolutionary Timothy Leary. And yes, he also interviewed John Robarts, long after Robarts left the premiers office. So well feature some of that interview in these pages.

Half a century of Ontario premiers: What did the successful ones have in common? Why did some of them fail to achieve their potential? Do Ontarians prefer their premiers to be moderate, bland, middle-of-the- roaders such as William Davis? Or fire-breathing revolutionaries such as Mike Harris? And why has none of them been able to do what Leslie Frost did five-and-a-half decades ago: win three consecutive majority governments? (Dalton McGuinty missed that achievement by just one seat in 2011.)

Its a good bet that those of you reading this book have, at one time or another, cursed the names of all of the premiers in it. Particularly in an era of twenty-four-hour-a-day cable news, social media gone wild, and internet users who, shall we say, never quite graduated from finishing school, to be premier of Canadas most populous province is to invite frequent and perpetual criticism, scorn, even hatred. One viewer even called me on a few occasions promising to kill Harris.

So its worth trying to understand more about these leaders, and to find out what makes them special because they are special. Of the tens of millions of people who have lived in the province of Ontario since Confederation, only twenty-five have ever been able to bear the appellation, premier of Ontario.

This book is my take on the last nine, who have made Ontarios past half century, as the song says, a place to stand and a place to grow.

Portions of the interviews have been edited for length and readability, but none of the context has been in any way affected.

John Parmenter Robarts

(19611971)

F or a man who became known as the Chairman of the Board, suggesting his elevation to the premiers office was somehow preordained, its remarkable how the political career of Ontarios seventeenth premier almost ended before it began.

John Robarts seemed the ideal candidate when he first ran for politics in 1950. Handsome, with rugged good looks, bright, a Second World War naval hero, a lawyer married to his university sweetheart, Robarts seemed to have it all when he ran for London city council. And yet he won that first election by just seven votes. I often wonder how the course of Ontario history might be different had four people changed their votes in that municipal election. What if Robarts had lost? Would he have washed his hands of politics? Public life is replete with examples of so-called star candidates who tried to get elected, failed on the first attempt, then never tried again. Would Robarts have been one of them?

Fortunately for Ontario, its a question that never needed asking. Robarts won his city council seat, and just a year later parlayed that into a seat in the Ontario Legislature. Thus began one of the most impressive political careers in Ontario history, and one of the most tragic personal stories of any politician at the same time.

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