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The province of Ontario, Canada conducted a general election on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) in the Ontario Legislative Assembly. The election was called on September 2 by Premier Ernie Eves after the governing Tories received a jump in the polls after dealing with the 2003 North American blackout.
Many observers considered the campaign notoriously high in mudslinging, even though all sides disavowed this tactic during the televised debate. Both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives (Tories) indulged, but many of the most notorious incidents came from the Conservative side. One bizarre incident took place on September 12, when a press release from the Tories referred to Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty as an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet", which was roundly condemned as a petty and juvenile insult. In another incident towards the end of the campaign, Premier Eves referred to Mr. McGuinty as having a "pointy head," a remark he later conceded was inappropriate. Many observers have commented that the negative tone apparently backfired, creating more sympathy for the Liberal leader.
Another embarrassing Tory gaffe occurred when Eves couldn't say how much his election promises would cost. These gaffes were magnified by a generally unsympathetic media which was poorly treated by the Tory campaign team. An important blow to the Tory campaign was a Fraser Institute study which demonstrated that despite Tory promises, Ontario had a fairly severe deficit.
For its part, the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) led a theatrical campaign. Leader Howard Hampton made an appearance in front of the Toronto home of millionaire Peter Munk to denounce Eves' tax breaks, claiming that they would save Munk $18 000 a year. He attempted to literally nail Jell-O to a wall to dramatize the elusiveness he accused his opponents of regarding hydro privatization, and used a piece of Swiss cheese, comparing the holey cheese to his opponents' platforms.
Another campaign issue was the treatment of the Green Party of Ontario, which denounced a CRTC decision not to allow leader Frank de Jong to participate in the leaders' debate.
The campaign was contentious on the issues as well, with both the Liberals and Howard Hampton's New Democrats attacking the Tories' record in office. Various scandals and other unpopular moves reduced public opinion of the Tories going into the race, including the Walkerton water tragedy, the death of Dudley George, the possible sale of Hydro One, the SARS outbreak, the decision to release the 2003 budget at an auto plant instead of the Legislature, the widespread blackout in August, and the Aylmer packing plant tainted meat investigation. . As one Tory insider put it "So many chickens came to roost, its like a remake of The Birds".
One of the most contentious issues was education. All three parties pledged to increase spending by $2 billion, but Premier Eves also pledged to ban teacher strikes, lock-outs, and work-to-rule campaigns during the school year, a move the other parties rejected. Teacher strikes had plagued the previous Progressive Conservative mandate of Mike Harris, whose government had deeply cut education spending.
Tax cuts were also an issue. The Progressive Conservatives proposed a wide range of tax cuts, including a 20-percent cut to personal income taxes and the elimination of education tax paid by seniors, two moves that would have cost $1.3 billion together. The Liberals and New Democrats rejected these cuts as profligate. The Liberals also promised to cancel some pending Tory tax cuts and to eliminate some tax cuts already introduced.
| Party Standings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Leader | Pre-election seats | Results | ||||||
| Seats | % of votes cast | % change in popular vote | |||||||
| Liberal | Dalton McGuinty | 36 | 72 | 46.4% | +6.6% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Ernie Eves | 56 | 24 | 34.6% | -10.5% | ||||
| New Democratic | Howard Hampton | 9 | 7 | 14.7% | +2.1% | ||||
| Green | Frank de Jong | 0 | 0 | 2.8% | +2.1% | ||||
| Family Coalition | Giuseppe Gori | 0 | 0 | 0.8% | +0.2% | ||||
| Freedom | Paul McKeever | 0 | 0 | 0.2% | +0.1% | ||||
| Communist | Elizabeth Rowley | 0 | 0 | 0.05% | +0.03% | ||||
| Libertarian | Sam Apelbaum | 0 | 0 | 0.04% | -0.06% | ||||
| Confederation of Regions | none (Queen's Park staff, money for research, and guaranteed time during Question Period. On the other hand, they increased their share of the popular vote for the first time since 1990, and may be in a better position for next election, given the disillusionment with McGuinty's government and a distaste for a weakened Progressive Conservative party. Regardless, Hampton stated that he would stay on as Leader, saying that the party did not blame him for the poor performance in an election where voters were apparently more concerned about defeating the Tories by any means necessary than about voting their conscience. The party would be returned to official party status seven months into the session, when Andrea Horwath won a by-election in Hamilton East on May 13, 2004.
The Tories were completely shut out of Toronto, where 19 out of 22 ridings were won by the Liberals and the remaining three were carried by the New Democrats. The Tories also managed to win only one seat in northern Ontario, Ernie Eves' home riding of Perry Sound-Muskoka. Former Premier Mike Harris' old seat went Liberal. Six Tory cabinet ministers were defeated at the polls, though both Eves and NDP leader Howard Hampton retained their seats. The 38th Parliament of Ontario opened on November 19th, 2003 at 3 P.M. Eastern Time. See also Canadian Politics in 2003. [Top]
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