Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a Canadian former 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.
McGuinty was born in Ottawa. He studied science at university, but ended up taking a law degree and practiced law in Ottawa. His father served as a Liberal member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1987 until his death in 1990. A provincial election was called for later that year and McGuinty successfully ran in his father's seat, though the incumbent Liberal government was defeated. After party leader Lyn McLeod resigned due to her leading the Liberals to a second defeat in the 1995 election, McGuinty was elected leader in the 1996 leadership election. McGuinty lost the 1999 election to Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris, but won a resounding majority in 2003.
From 2003 to 2007, McGuinty's government increased spending for health care and education. He won another majority in 2007, though his second term was deeply affected by the 2008 financial crisis, which saw government revenues plummet. In addition, a scandal developed around a new plan to update health care records called eHealth Ontario. Just prior to the 2011 election, another controversy developed when McGuinty's government cancelled gas plants that were located in key Liberal ridings and were widely opposed by the local residents. The cost to cancel the projects was close to $1 billion and the move was seen as pandering to the electorate in a few electoral districts. The scandal caused the Liberals to be reduced to a minority government.
McGuinty continued as premier for another year and a half, but the continuing gas plant issue refused to go away. He prorogued the legislature in October 2012 before being succeeded as Liberal leader and premier by Kathleen Wynne in February 2013. McGuinty resigned his own seat in June 2013. Shortly after leaving the legislature, he was named a senior fellow at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
McGuinty was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents are politician and professor Dalton McGuinty Sr. and full-time nurse Elizabeth (Pexton) McGuinty. The son of a Francophone mother and an Anglophone father, McGuinty is bilingual. McGuinty is the second Roman Catholic to hold the premiership. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother of English and French Canadian ancestry. His maternal grandfather immigrated to Canada from England. He has nine brothers and sisters. His younger brother David has represented the riding of Ottawa South in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004.
He is an alumnus of St. Patrick's High School in Ottawa, earning a B.Sc. in biology from McMaster University. He then earned his LL.B from the University of Ottawa before practicing law in Ottawa.
Since 1980, he has been married to high school girlfriend Terri McGuinty, an elementary school teacher. The couple have one daughter and three sons.
Member of Provincial Parliament
McGuinty's father, Dalton Sr., served as Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Ottawa South until his death in 1990. Dalton Jr. won the Liberal Party's nomination for his father's former riding for the provincial election of 1990 and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The Liberal government of David Peterson was defeated by the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) in that election. In opposition, McGuinty served as the Liberal Party's critic for energy, environment and colleges and universities. He was re-elected in Ottawa South in the 1995 provincial election without much difficulty. The Liberals maintained their status as the official opposition amid a provincial swing from the NDP to the Progressive Conservatives.
McGuinty's supporters in his 1996 leadership bid included John Manley, Murray Elston, and Bob Chiarelli. He was elected leader at the party's convention December in a surprise victory over front-runner Gerard Kennedy.
Kennedy, a former head of Toronto's Daily Bread food bank, was popular on the progressive wing of the party, while McGuinty built his core support on its establishment and pro-business right-wing. McGuinty was fourth on the first and second ballots, closely behind Dwight Duncan. He then overtook Duncan and Joe Cordiano on the third and fourth ballots, respectively, receiving the support of their delegates to win on the fifth ballot over Kennedy. Critics called McGuinty "Harris Lite", but his supporters argued that a right-leaning leader like McGuinty was necessary to compete against the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) of Premier Mike Harris.
McGuinty's first term in opposition was difficult. The governing Progressive Conservatives played up McGuinty's low profile by defining him as "not up to the job" in a series of television advertisements. His internal management of the Liberal Party was also criticized by some.
McGuinty's performance in the early weeks of the 1999 provincial election was widely criticized in the media, and he was generally regarded as having performed poorly in the election's only leaders' debate. In response to a question by late CITY-TV journalist Colin Vaughan, he described Mike Harris as a "thug" who is lying to the people of Ontario.
McGuinty's Liberals won support from progressive voters who had supported the Ontario New Democratic Party, and now hoped to defeat the governing Conservatives by strategic voting. The Progressive Conservative Party was re-elected, and McGuinty rallied his party in the election's closing days to draw 40% of the popular vote for the Liberals, their second-best performance in fifty years, which increased their seat total in the Legislature from 30 to 36. McGuinty himself faced a surprisingly difficult re-election in Ottawa South, before defeating his Conservative opponent by about 3,000 votes.
During McGuinty's second term as opposition leader, he hired a more skilled group of advisors and drafted former cabinet minister Greg Sorbara as party president. McGuinty also rebuilt the party's fundraising operation, launching the Ontario Liberal Fund. In preparation for the 2003 election, the party adopted a platform that emphasized lowering class sizes in schools, hiring more nurses, increasing environmental protections, and "holding the line" on taxes. McGuinty also made an effort to improve his debating skills and received coaching from Scott Reid who also trained United States Senator John McCain.
McGuinty's chances of forming government were improved by a number of controversies involving the governing PC Party, including the fallout over the shooting death of native protester Dudley George at Ipperwash, the deaths of seven people from tainted water in Walkerton, and the decision to provide tax credits to parents who sent their children to private schools.
Harris resigned in 2001 and his successor, Ernie Eves, received a short boost in the polls from his attempts to move the PC Party to the centre.