Eves was born in Windsor, Ontario, to a working-class family. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School and practised law in his own firm, Green & Eves. He was elected in the northern Ontario riding of Parry Sound in 1981 by a margin of six votes but retained the seat for 20 years. He served briefly as a cabinet minister in the short-lived government of Frank Miller in 1985, but he was consigned to the opposition benches when the Tories were defeated in a motion of no confidence by an alliance of the opposition Liberal and New Democrats. He remained in opposition until 1995, when the Tories returned to power under Mike Harris, who appointed Eves as his Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance. Family tragedy and marital problems led to his resignation from the legislature in 2001.
After a brief return to the private sector, Eves returned to politics when Harris resigned in 2002. He won the party leadership and regained a seat in the legislature after winning a by-election in the central Ontario riding of Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey. His tenure as premier was short, as his party was defeated 16 months later in the 2003 election, which saw the PC party lose 35 of its 59 seats. He resigned as leader in 2004 and retired from the legislature on January 31, 2005.
In 2007, Eves was appointed as Chairman of Jacob Securities Inc., a Toronto-based financial services company. He served in that position until July 2012.[2]
Early life and career
Eves was born into a working-class family in Windsor, Ontario, in 1946, the son of Julie (née Hawrelechko) and Harry Lewis Eves, a factory worker.[3] His maternal grandparents were Ukrainian.[4] As a teenager, Eves moved with his family to the central Ontario town of Parry Sound. Eves went to Osgoode Hall Law School, was called to the bar in 1972,[5] and practiced with the firm of Green and Eves. In 1981, he ran for provincial parliament in the riding of Parry Sound. He defeated Liberal candidate Richard Thomas by only six votes, leading to the nickname "Landslide Ernie", and went on to keep the seat for twenty years.[6]
Eves is a long time close friend of fellow northern Ontario MPP Mike Harris. In 1990, Eves backed Harris' bid for the party leadership. In 1995, after being elected on the "Common Sense Revolution", a program of tax cuts and government cutbacks, Eves was appointed Harris' Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier.
In Finance, Eves supervised significant cuts to taxes and public spending, particularly in the field of social assistance. Provincial income taxes were cut by 30% and welfare rates were reduced by 22%, resulting in 500,000 people being cut from the Ontario welfare rolls. [citation needed] There were also cuts to education and health services. The Harris government justified these measures as necessary to eliminate the provincial deficit.
After initially adopting a policy of restraint toward health care costs, Eves' later budgets increased health spending. He eventually succeeded in balancing the budget early in the government's second term.
As Minister of Finance, Eves also oversaw two privatization initiatives: the long-term lease of the Bruce nuclear generating station to British Energy and the 99-year lease of Highway 407 to a consortium of mainly foreign investors.
Upon his retirement, Eves claimed that the impact of his 22% reduction in welfare rates "kept him up at night". There have also been reports that Eves was conflicted about the risks of adding $22 billion to the provincial debt by cutting taxes before balancing the budget. Some believe that Eves was responsible for restraining some of Harris' more radical initiatives during their time in office.
Despite the close friendship and similar backgrounds and beliefs of Harris and Eves, the two have very different public personae. While Harris tried to be the embodiment of a grass-roots politician, Eves was just the opposite. He was always meticulously well-turned-out in expensive suits, with court-filings revealing he spent $25,000 a year on clothing, $5,000 a year on jewelry and cufflinks and $700 a month on dry cleaning. [citation needed] Eves also sported a slicked-back hair style that reinforced his image as a "slick" politician.
Eves' personal life in the last few years of the Harris government was tumultuous. His son, Justin, was killed in a traffic accident in Parry Sound, and soon afterward his long-standing marriage broke down. Eves began a relationship with a fellow cabinet colleague, Isabel Bassett, and he and his wife separated. On February 8, 2001 Eves decided to resign from his post of Finance Minister to seek opportunities in the private sector. He became vice-chair of the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston and senior partner at a prominent Toronto law firm.
Eves' retirement was brief. When Mike Harris stepped down as Conservative leader, he ran in the 2002 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership election. He immediately became the front-runner and most PC MPPs and members of the party came to support him. He staved off a determined run by his successor at Finance, Jim Flaherty, who pushed a hard-right agenda to appeal to the party's grassroots. Flaherty's campaign featured scathing attacks on Eves, calling him a "serial waffler" and a "pale, pink imitation of Dalton McGuinty". He became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario on March 23, 2002 despite not holding a seat at the time, following a second-ballot victory.
Premier
Eves was sworn in as Ontario's 23rd Premier on April 15, 2002, and returned to the legislature as the member for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey after a by-election on May 2, 2002.
Reforms were made to the power system. Cost over-runs at nuclear reactors and a very hot summer combined with problems in market regulation to drive hydro prices up significantly (particularly in northern Ontario). The government was forced to cancel the privatization and capped hydro rates below cost, billing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In late 2002, cabinet minister Cam Jackson was forced to resign when the Liberals alleged he had spent more than $100,000 on meals and alcohol in expensive restaurants and in four star Toronto hotels. Jackson was later fully exonerated of allegations of wrongdoing. Eves was also caught unaware when the Liberals broke that Mike Harris had arranged a secret tax break for professional sports teams on his last day in office.
Concerned about returning to the legislature, Eves' advisors hatched a plan that turned out to be a public relations disaster. They convinced the Premier to have the Minister of Finance, Janet Ecker, present the government's March 2003 budget at a televised press conference at the headquarters of auto parts maker Magna International, instead of in the legislature.[7] Magna's CEO, Belinda Stronach, was prominent PC supporter, who later became a Liberal cabinet minister at the federal level. The "Magna Budget" resulted in accusations that the government was trying to avoid the scrutiny of the legislature and was flouting centuries of parliamentary tradition in favour of a PR stunt. Furthermore, the expense of the move was condemned as a waste of money, considering that the legislative chamber was already equipped with video equipment for televised coverage.
The "Magna Budget" was intended to launch a provincial election campaign, but was so poorly received that the election was delayed until the autumn. Attacks came from not only the opposition parties and the media but from one of Eves' own party members, Gary Carr. As Speaker of the legislature, Carr ruled that the government's actions were prima facie in contempt of the legislature. (Subsequently, the PC majority in the Legislature voted to overturn Carr's ruling.) The budget also included several assumptions that led many commentators to believe the government was in fact running a deficit in the range of $2 billion.
On 10 June, the Eves cabinet selected judge Archie Campbell to chair its SARS Commission inquiry into the failures of the health system, after the virus that caused the SARS epidemic was transmitted on 23 February from China to Toronto, where it wreaked havoc, including from 7 March at Scarborough Grace Hospital.[8][9]
Soon after the budget, Energy Minister Chris Stockwell ran into trouble when he allowed a company he regulated to pay for a family trip to Europe. After several weeks of front-page news on the scandal and an unfavourable ruling from the province's Integrity Commissioner, Eves forced Stockwell to resign on 17 June.[10]
In the summer of 2003, the power issue caused further trouble for Eves. During its time in office, the PC government had failed to make any substantial investments in new sources of power. Warm weather and the use of air conditioners pushed the Ontario hydro grid to the brink, and after the Northeast blackout of 2003, the provincial power utility was forced to buy expensive power from neighbouring producers in Quebec. During that time, Eves made daily television appearances announcing developments in the situation, and appealing to the public to conserve as much electricity as possible during the period. As a result of that exposure, Eves enjoyed a moderate uptick in the polls.
A highlight of his premiership was his meeting with Ukrainian opposition leader Victor Yushchenko in May 2003. During Yushchenko's visit to Toronto, a banquet was organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, attended by over 1,000 people. Yushchenko was welcomed by "the members of the Canadian political elite in Toronto, headed by Premier of Ontario Ernie Eves", who was described as a leading Canadian of Ukrainian heritage, as well as federal cabinet minister Sheila Copps, Bishop Augustine Eugene Hornyak, Senator A. Raynell Andreychuk and City Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby.[11]
In September 2003, Eves called an election for October 2, 2003. While exposure from the blackout had boosted the PCs into a short-lived tie with Dalton McGuinty's Liberals in the polls, and despite the reputation of the Ontario Tories for increasing their support base in mid-campaign, Eves had trouble convincing voters that his party deserved to stay in office. The Tories had released their platform, "The Road Ahead", in May. Eves had hired many of Harris' advisers for the campaign, and they drafted a platform that was closer to Flaherty's (and Harris') views than those of Eves. Eves was visibly uncomfortable defending policy proposals that he had opposed a year earlier. When a PC campaign staffer distributed a press release referring to McGuinty as an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet", many voters were turned off by the attack.
In contrast, the Liberals ran a highly focused, disciplined campaign on the simple theme of "Choose Change". They had spent the last four years positioning themselves as the government in waiting. McGuinty appeared ready for the office of Premier and tapped into voter frustration over deteriorating public services and the needless conflict of the Harris/Eves governments. Eves was unable to make any headway in the leadership debate, appearing uncharacteristically restrained in the face of criticism from McGuinty, and was unable to revive support for his party in the final days of the campaign.
On October 2, 2003, the Liberals won 72 of the 103 seats in the Legislature, and Eves' Tories won just 24. He won his own seat by the largest margin of any PC candidate.
Resignation
Eves' time as Opposition leader was more fruitful, when he led attacks against the McGuinty government's first budget, particularly the Ontario Health Premium —which broke the Liberals' campaign pledge not to raise taxes and the elimination of health services such as eye examinations and physical therapy. Despite being considered a lame-duck leader, Eves led in opinion polls for that period of time.[12]
In early 2004, Eves announced his intention to resign prior to the fall 2004 legislative session. A leadership election chose John Tory as Eves' successor on September 18, 2004; Eves was officially neutral in the contest. Tory and Eves shared a number of attributes, both coming from the so-called Red Tory wing of the party.
Eves had been widely expected to resign his seat in the provincial legislature during the 2004 Christmas holidays in order to allow Tory an opportunity to enter the Ontario legislature through a by-election. Eves' resignation was not forthcoming. After staff in Tory's office leaked Eves' impending resignation, Eves refused to resign, thereby undercutting the new leader's credibility. Another report[13] contends that Eves was refusing to resign before securing an appointment to the Canadian Senate or to a public board. As federal and provincial patronage appointments were in the hands of Liberals, it would have been difficult for John Tory to persuade either the provincial or federal government to make such an appointment.
On January 31, 2005, Eves resigned his seat in the provincial legislature. Although he had received several high-profile job offers from the private sector after stepping down as leader, he had reportedly turned them down. In 2007, he joined Jacob & Company Securities Inc. (now Jacob Securities Inc.), a Toronto-based boutique investment bank that specializes in the renewable energy and clean technology sectors, where he served as Executive Chairman until July 2012.[2]
Career in cannabis
In 2015, Eves became chairman of Timeless Herbal Care, a medical cannabis firm in Jamaica.[14]
Federal politics
For many years, Eves was known as the most prominent supporter of the federal Progressive Conservative Party in Mike Harris's government. He had supported Joe Clark from the first ballot at the party's 1976 leadership convention, and continued to support the federal Tories in the 1990s despite the rise of the Reform Party as a rival right-wing force. He endorsed Hugh Segal's bid for the leadership of the federal party in 1998.
Eves took out a membership in the Canadian Alliance in 2000 to support Tom Long's leadership bid, but rejoined the Tories after Stockwell Day was chosen as the Canadian Alliance leader. During the 2002 Ontario PC Party leadership race, Eves and his supporters invited federal PC Party leader Joe Clark to attend as an honorary delegate. No such invitation was extended by any camp to the newly named Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper, who attended the provincial PC convention in late 2004 as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Related Research Articles
Michael Deane Harris is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario from 1990 to 2002. During his time as party leader, he guided the Ontario PC Party toward Blue Toryism, advocating for the "Common Sense Revolution", his government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and budget cuts.
Chris Stockwell was a Canadian politician from Ontario. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2003, and served as Speaker of the legislature and cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Before entering provincial politics, he had been a member of Etobicoke City Council and the Metro Toronto Council. Stockwell's father, Bill Stockwell, was also a prominent municipal politician.
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nearly 70 years earlier. In 2011, he became the first Liberal premier to secure a third consecutive term since Oliver Mowat after his party was re-elected in that year's provincial election.
The Ontario Liberal Party is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023.
The phrase Common Sense Revolution (CSR) has been used as a political slogan to describe conservative platforms with a main goal of reducing taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the size and role of government. It has been used in places such as Australia and Canada. This article deals with the "Common Sense Revolution" as it was under Ontario Premier Mike Harris and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario from 1995 to 2002.
The 2003 Ontario general election was held on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 members of the 38th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada.
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre to centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada.
Frank Stuart Miller was a Canadian politician who served as the 19th premier of Ontario for four months in 1985. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1971 as a Progressive Conservative member of the central Ontario riding of Muskoka. He served in the cabinet of Premier Bill Davis in several portfolios including Minister of Health and Minister of Natural Resources. He also served five years as the Treasurer of Ontario.
Frank Klees is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He was a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
Elizabeth Witmer is a former Deputy Premier of Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 until 2012, representing Waterloo North and later Kitchener—Waterloo as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.
John Russell Baird is a retired Canadian politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2015 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He had been a member of the federal cabinet, in various positions, since 2006. Previously he was a provincial cabinet minister in Ontario during the governments of Premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Baird resigned from Harper's cabinet on February 3, 2015, and as a Member of Parliament on March 16, 2015.
Janet Ecker is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003, and was a senior cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
Robert William "Bob" Runciman is a Canadian politician and former provincial Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature. First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1981, he held the seat continuously for Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario for the next 29 years. On January 29, 2010, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a Conservative, where he served until August 10, 2017.
Kathleen O'Day Wynne is a former Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Don Valley West from 2003 to 2022. Wynne is the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
Jim Wilson is a retired Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Simcoe—Grey, and its predecessor riding of Simcoe West, from 1990 to 2022. He sat as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario caucus from his first election until November 2, 2018, when he resigned from caucus due to allegations of sexual misconduct. While part of the PC caucus, Wilson was chosen by his fellow caucus members on July 2, 2014, to serve as interim leader of the party and Leader of the Opposition following the resignation of Tim Hudak. He continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition until September 2015 when new party leader, Patrick Brown, entered the legislature through a by-election. He was reelected in June 2018, but resigned from cabinet and the Progressive Conservative caucus on November 2, 2018. He sat as an independent member for the remainder of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario and did not seek re-election in the 2022 Ontario general election.
Timothy Patrick Hudak is a former Canadian politician who led the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party from 2009 to 2014. Hudak was a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1995 to 2016 and was also the leader of the Opposition in Ontario when he was PC party leader. He served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. After resigning his seat in the Ontario legislature in September 2016, Hudak became the chief executive officer of the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), which has its headquarters in Toronto.
Margaret Marland is a former Canadian politician in Ontario. She was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 2003, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris.
David S. Young is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2003. He represented the riding of Willowdale and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
The Province of Ontario is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Parliament of Ontario, composed of the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislative Assembly, which operates in the Westminster system of government. The political party that wins the largest number of seats in the legislature normally forms the government, and the party's leader becomes premier of the province, i.e., the head of the government.
The 38th Legislative Assembly of Ontario was a legislature of the government of the Province of Ontario, Canada. It officially opened November 19, 2003, at Queen's Park in Toronto, and ended on June 5, 2007. The membership was set by the 2003 Ontario general election on October 2, 2003, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
