Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) 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. Taking the PC Party to the right, he is noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his government's program of fiscally conservative policies.
Born in Toronto, Harris grew up in North Bay and worked as a ski instructor and schoolteacher before becoming a school board trustee in 1974. In 1981, he became a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the riding of Nipissing. He became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in the 1990 leadership election. That same year, a provincial election was called in which Harris led the PCs to a modest boost in support, though they still remained in third place. However, five years later, he led the PCs to a strong majority government in the 1995 provincial election. He led the party to a second majority in 1999.
As party leader and premier, Harris shifted the historically centrist PC Party to the right by embracing the Common Sense Revolution, which emphasized lower taxes, deficit reduction, cuts to public spending, and privatization. His government reduced personal income taxes by 30 percent, privatized Highway 407, and privatized provincial water testing which was viewed as controversial especially after the Walkerton E. coli outbreak. He oversaw cuts to healthcare, infrastructure, and education spending, the last of which led to the 1997 Ontario teachers' strike, the largest teachers' strike in Ontario history. In 1999, Harris' government balanced the budget. In administrative policy, his government reduced the number of MPPs from 130 to 103 between 1995 and 1999, and oversaw the Amalgamation of Toronto. In his final years in office, his government introduced a tax credit for parents who send their children to private schools.
In 2002, Harris retired as premier and PC leader, and was succeeded by Ernie Eves in both capacities. After leaving office, Harris went into the private sector and became a fellow at the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank.
Harris was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Hope Gooding (born Robinson) and Sidney Deane Harris. He grew up in North Bay, where his father operated the Wasi Falls Resort fishing camp. Harris attended Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) but left after a year.
At the age of 21, following his father's purchase of a ski hill, Harris moved for two years to Sainte-Adèle, Quebec, where he became a ski instructor. After the end of his first marriage, he enrolled at Laurentian University and North Bay Teacher's College where he received his teaching certificate. He was employed as an elementary school teacher at W. J. Fricker Public School in North Bay where he taught grade seven and eight mathematics for several years in a new open-concept class of 120 students. He continued in his previous occupation as a ski-instructor at Nipissing Ridge on weekends as well as working at his father's fishing camp during the summer season. He eventually left the teaching profession as the success of the ski resort escalated. After his father sold his ski-hill operation, Harris was hired to manage North Bay's Pinewood Golf Club.
Harris was elected to public office as a school board trustee in 1974. He entered provincial politics in the 1981 election, and defeated Mike Bolan, the incumbent Liberal MPP in Nipissing. Harris later suggested that he was motivated to enter politics by an opposition to the policies of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Harris sat as a backbencher in Bill Davis's PC government from 1981 to 1985. He supported Frank Miller's successful bid to succeed Davis as party leader in 1985 and took the role of rival candidate Dennis Timbrell to prepare Miller for the party's all-candidate debates. Miller was sworn in as premier of Ontario on February 8, 1985, and appointed Harris as minister of natural resources.
The Tories were reduced to a minority government in the 1985 provincial election, although Harris was personally re-elected without difficulty. He kept the natural resources portfolio after the election, and was also named minister of energy on May 17, 1985. The Miller government was soon defeated on a motion of no confidence by David Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's New Democratic Party (NDP).
An agreement between the Liberals and the NDP allowed a Liberal minority government to govern for two years in exchange for the implementation of certain NDP policies. This decision consigned the Tories to opposition for the first time in 42 years. Miller resigned and was replaced by Larry Grossman, who led the party to a disastrous showing in the 1987 election and announced his resignation shortly thereafter. Harris was again re-elected in Nipissing without difficulty.
Grossman, who had lost his legislative seat, remained the leader of the party until 1990, while Sarnia MPP Andy Brandt served as "interim leader" in the legislature. Harris was chosen as PC house leader, and had become the party's dominant voice in the legislature by 1989. Harris entered the 1990 leadership race, and defeated Dianne Cunningham in a province-wide vote to replace Grossman as the party's official leader.
The 1990 provincial election was called soon after Harris became party leader. With help from past leader Larry Grossman, Harris managed to rally his party's core supporters with pledges of tax cuts and spending reductions. Due to his teaching background, Harris was personally endorsed by several local members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF). The election was won by Bob Rae's NDP. The Conservatives increased their seat total from 17 to 20 out of 130. Despite some early concerns, Harris was again able to retain his own seat.
On May 3, 1994, Harris unveiled his "Common Sense Revolution" platform. It called for significant spending and tax cuts, as well as elimination of the province's record $11 billion deficit.
By the 1995 election, the governing New Democratic Party and incumbent Premier Bob Rae had become unpopular with the electorate, partly due to the state of the Ontario economy and its record debt and deficit amidst a Canada-wide recession. Lyn McLeod's Liberals were leading in pre-election polls and were expected to benefit from the swing in support away from the NDP, but they began losing support due to several controversial policy reversals and what was generally regarded as an uninspiring campaign. The turning point in the election is often considered to be Harris's performance in the televised leaders' debate. Harris used his camera time to speak directly to the camera to convey his party's Common Sense Revolution platform. The Rae government had previously lost much of its base in organized labour, due in part to the unpopularity of its "Social Contract" legislation in 1993 (which Harris, after some initial vacillations, eventually voted against). Harris's opposition to Rae's affirmative action measures helped him to capture some unionized-worker support during the election, particularly among male workers.
Although there were regional variations, many union voters shifted from the NDP to the PCs in 1995 (instead of to the Liberals as expected pre-campaign), enabling the PCs to win a number of new ridings, such as Cambridge and Oshawa, which had long supported the NDP. In addition roughly half of the PCs seats came from the suburban belt surrounding Metro Toronto, often called the '905' for its telephone area code. The PCs' growth from 20 to 82 seats in the 130 seat legislature vaulted them from third place to a large majority government.
Premier of Ontario (1995–2002)
Upon election, the Harris government immediately began to implement a far-reaching reform agenda to cut the large provincial deficit accumulated under the previous Rae government. One of its first major policy decisions in 1995 was to cut social assistance rates by 21.6%. The government argued that too many people were taking advantage of the program, and that it acted as a disincentive for seeking employment. The government also introduced "Ontario Works", frequently referred to as "workfare", a program that required able-bodied welfare recipients to participate in either training or job placements.