ontario general election, 2003

The Ontario general election of 2003 was held on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 members of the Legislative Assembly (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The election was called on September 2 by Premier Ernie Eves after public opinion polls indicated an increase in support for the governing Ontario Progressive Conservative Party because of the government's handling of the 2003 North American blackout. The election was won, however, by the Ontario Liberal Party, led by Dalton McGuinty.

Campaign

Conduct of the campaign

Many observers commented on the high level of mudslinging during the campaign, even though all sides had disavowed this tactic during the televised debate. Both the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives (Tories) participated in mudslinging, but it was the Conservative side that initiated many of the more egregious incidents. 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 study by the right-wing Fraser Institute that demonstrated that despite Tory promises, Ontario had a large budgetary 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 nail Jell-O to a wall to dramatize the elusiveness he accused his opponents of regarding hydro privatization. He also used a piece of Swiss cheese to suggest that his opponents' platforms were full of holes. http://toronto.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=onel_ndpend20031002 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. A Green candidate in Nipissing also alleged that his Tory opponent's campaign had offered him a significant donation in order to ensure that he stayed in the race to divide the opposition vote.

Issues

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 publicly-owned electric utility Hydro One, the SARS outbreak, the decision to release the 2003 budget at an auto parts factory instead of the Legislature, the widespread blackout in August, and the Aylmer packing plant tainted meat investigation. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031002.wwhyy1002/BNStory/SpecialEvents4/. 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.

Assessment

CBC Newsworld declared a Liberal victory minutes after ballot-counting began. Ernie Eves conceded defeat only ninety minutes into the count. The NDP had a disappointingly confusing election: on one hand, they won one fewer than the eight seats needed to keep "official party status," which would give it a share of official 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. The party may be in a better position for the next election, given the disillusionment with McGuinty's government and a distaste for a weakened Progressive Conservative party. Despite the mixed results, Hampton stated that he would stay on as party 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 was 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.

Student vote

High School students in every riding in Ontario were allowed to cast ballots in their classrooms as part of a student vote. While their numbers did not count in the official election, they did tell a story all on their own. The student vote reflected change a lot more than the actual result, as well as wide scale anti-conservativism. 93 ridings favoured the liberals in the student vote, 9 favoured the New Democrats, and one favoured the greens, while the Conservatives were shut out.

Results

rowspan="2"\|Party	rowspan="2"\|Leader	rowspan="2"\|Candidates	colspan="3"\|Seats	colspan="3"\|Popular Vote
efore¹	After	% change	#	%	% change
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Liberal-Party" title="Ontario Liberal Party">Liberal	Dalton McGuinty	align=center\|103	align=center\|36	align=center\|72	align=center\|+50%	align=center\|2,090,001	align=center\|46.4%	align=center\|+6.6%
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Progressive-Conservative-Party" title="Ontario Progressive Conservative Party">Progressive Conservative	Ernie Eves	align=center\|103	align=center\|56	align=center\|24	align=center\|-57.1%	align=center\|1,559,181	align=center\|34.6%	align=center\|-10.5%
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-New-Democratic-Party" title="Ontario New Democratic Party">New Democratic	Howard Hampton	align=center\|103	align=center\|9	align=center\|7	align=center\|-22.2%	align=center\|660,730	align=center\|14.7%	align=center\|+2.1%
a href="/encyclopedia/Green-Party-of-Ontario" title="Green Party of Ontario">Green	Frank de Jong	align=center\|102	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|126,651	align=center\|2.8%	align=center\|+2.1%
Family Coalition	Giuseppe Gori	align=center\|51	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|34,623	align=center\|0.8%	align=center\|+0.2%
a href="/encyclopedia/Freedom-Party-of-Ontario" title="Freedom Party of Ontario">Freedom	Paul McKeever	align=center\|24	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|8,376	align=center\|0.2%	align=center\|+0.1%
a href="/encyclopedia/Communist-Party-of-Canada" title="Communist Party of Canada">Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	align=center\|6	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|2,187	align=center\|0.05%	align=center\|+0.03%
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Libertarian-Party" title="Ontario Libertarian Party">Libertarian	Sam Apelbaum	align=center\|5	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|1,991	align=center\|0.04%	align=center\|-0.06%
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Provincial-Confederation-of-Regions-Party" title="Ontario Provincial Confederation of Regions Party">Confederation of Regions	none	align=center\|1	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|293	align=center\|0.01%	align=center\|
olspan=2\|Independent & Non-Affiliated	align=center\|24	align=center\|1	align=center\|-	align=center\|-100%	align=center\|13,211	align=center\|0.3%	align=center\|-0.3%
olspan=2\|Independent Renewal	align=center\|10	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|3,402	align=center\|-	align=center\|-
olspan=2\|"Independent Liberal"	align=center\|1	align=center\|1	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|3,259	align=center\|-	align=center\|-
olspan=2\|Independent Reform	align=center\|1	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|586	align=center\|-	align=center\|-
olspan=2\|Communist League	align=center\|1	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|204	align=center\|-	align=center\|-
olspan=2\|Other Independent	align=center\|11	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|-	align=center\|5,760	align=center\|-	align=center\|-
colspan=2\|Vacant	align=center\|	align=center\|1	align=center\|n/a	align=center\|n/a	align=center\|n/a	align=center\|n/a	align=center\|n/a
colspan=2\|Total	align=center\|	align=center\|103	align=center\|103	align=center\|-	align=center\|4,497,244	align=center\|100%	align=center\|

Notes: ¹ "Before" refers to the party standings in the Legislature at the end of the legislative session, and not to the standings at the previous election. ² Richard Butson was the sole candidate for the Confederation of Regions Party. ³Ten candidates ran as "Independent Renewal" candidates. This was the Marxist-Leninist party under another name. ⁴Candidates from the Independent Reform Party and Communist League also ran as independents. ⁵Costas Manios ran as an "Independent Liberal" candidate after being denied the opportunity to run for the Liberal Party nomination in Scarborough Centre. Outgoing MPP Claudette Boyer had sat in the house as an "Independent Liberal" from 2001 to 2003. It is possible that some other candidates listed on the ballot as independents ran for unregistered parties. The following table gives the number of seats each party won, and the number of ridings in which each party came second, third, and fourth:

arty	Seats	Second	Third	Fourth
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Liberal-Party" title="Ontario Liberal Party">Liberal	align=center\|72	align=center\|30	align=center\|1	align=center\|0
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-Progressive-Conservative-Party" title="Ontario Progressive Conservative Party">Progressive Conservative	align=center\|24	align=center\|57	align=center\|22	align=center\|0
a href="/encyclopedia/Ontario-New-Democratic-Party" title="Ontario New Democratic Party">New Democratic	align=center\|7	align=center\|16	align=center\|78	align=center\|2
a href="/encyclopedia/Green-Party-of-Ontario" title="Green Party of Ontario">Green	align=center\|0	align=center\|0	align=center\|2	align=center\|92