Ontario general election, 2003

Map of Ontario's ridings and their popular vote for their party elected

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.

The Ontario Legislature after the 2003 election.

1 Campaign
- 1.1 Conduct of the campaign
- 1.2 Issues
2 Assessment
- 2.1 Student vote
3 Results
4 Riding results
- 4.1 By-elections since the general election
5 See also
6 External links
- 6.1 General resources
- 6.2 Parties

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. [1]

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. [2]. 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

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	1999	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Liberal	Dalton McGuinty	103	35	36	72	+50%	2,090,001	46.4%	+6.6%
	Progressive Conservative	Ernie Eves	103	59	56	24	-57.1%	1,559,181	34.6%	-10.5%
	New Democratic	Howard Hampton	103	9	9	7	-22.2%	660,730	14.7%	+2.1%
	Green	Frank de Jong	102	-	-	-	-	126,651	2.8%	+2.1%
	Family Coalition	Giuseppe Gori	51	-	-	-	-	34,623	0.8%	+0.2%
	Freedom	Paul McKeever	24	-	-	-	-	8,376	0.2%	+0.1%
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	6	-	-	-	-	2,187	0.05%	+0.03%
	Libertarian	Sam Apelbaum	5	-	-	-	-	1,991	0.04%	-0.06%
	Confederation of Regions	none	1	-	-	-	-	293	0.01%
	Independent & non-affiliated		24	-	1	-	-100%	13,211	0.3%	-0.3%
	Independent Renewal		10	-	-	-	-	3,402	-	-
	Independent Liberal		1	-	-	-	-	3,259	-	-
	Independent Reform		1	-	-	-	-	586	-	-
	Communist League		1	-	-	-	-	204	-	-
	Other independent		11	-	-	-	-	5,760	-	-
	Vacant				1
Total				103	103	103	-	4,497,244	100%

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:

Party		Seats	Second	Third	Fourth
	Liberal	72	30	1	0
	Progressive Conservative	24	57	22	0
	New Democratic	7	16	78	2
	Green	0	0	2	92

Riding results

Electoral District						Incumbent
Electoral District	Liberal	Conservative	NDP	Green	Other	Incumbent
AlgomaManitoulin	Mike Brown 14,520 (48.68%)	Terry McCutcheon 5,168 (17.33%)	Peter Denley 9,459 (31.71%)	Ron Yurick 680 (2.28%)		Mike Brown
AncasterDundasFlamboroughAldershot	Ted McMeekin 23,045 (47.53%)	Mark Mullins 18,141 (37.42%)	Kelly Hayes 5,666 (11.69%)	Brian Elder Sullivan 903 (1.86%)	Michael Trolly (FCP) 434 (0.9%) Richard Butson (CoR) 293 (0.6%)	Ted McKeekin
BarrieSimcoeBradford	Mike Ramsay 21,998 (36.13%)	Joe Tascona 31,529 (51.78%)	John Thomson 5,641 (9.26%)	Stewart Sinclair 1,278 (2.1%)	Roberto Sales (FCP) 441 (0.72%)	Joe Tascona
BeachesEast York	Monica Purdy 10,070 (24.29%)	Angela Kennedy 8,157 (19.67%)	Michael Prue 21,239 (51.23%)	Tom Mason 1,995 (4.81%)		Michael Prue
BramaleaGoreMaltonSpringdale	Kuldip Kular 19,306 (45.61%)	Raminder Gill 15,549 (36.73%)	Cesar Martello 4,931 (11.65%)	Ernst Braendli 1,176 (2.78%)	Frank Chilelli (Ind – Independent Renewal) 868 (2.05%) Howard Cukoff (Comm) 503 (1.19%)	Raminder Gill
Brampton Centre	Linda Jeffrey 16,661 (43.48%)	Joe Spina 15,656 (40.86%)	Kathy Pounder 4,827 (12.6%)	Sanjeev Goel 820 (2.14%)	Wally Dove (F) 356 (0.93%)	Joe Spina
Brampton WestMississauga	Vic Dhillon 28,926 (46.18%)	Tony Clement 26,414 (42.17%)	Chris Moise 5,103 (8.15%)	Paul Simas 811 (1.29%)	Paul Micelli (FCP) 1,122 (1.79%) John G. Purdy (F) 266 (0.42%)	Tony Clement
Brant	Dave Levac 24,236 (54.55%)	Alayne Sokoloski 13,618 (30.65%)	David Noonan 5,262 (11.84%)	Mike Clancy 1,014 (2.28%)	John C. Turmel (Ind) 295 (0.66%)	Dave Levac
BruceGreyOwen Sound	Dave Hocking 14,881 (33.2%)	Bill Murdoch 23,338 (52.07%)	Colleen Purdon 4,159 (9.28%)	Martin Donald 769 (1.72%)	Linda Freiburger (FCP) 1,086 (2.42%) Bill Cook (Ind – Independent Reform) 586 (1.31%)	Bill Murdoch
Burlington	Mark Fuller 19,654 (42.18%)	Cam Jackson 21,506 (46.15%)	David Laird 3,832 (8.22%)	Julie Gordon 1,086 (2.33%)	Vic Corvaro (FCP) 523 (1.12%)	Cam Jackson
Cambridge	Jerry Boyle 16,559 (35.19%)	Gerry Martiniuk 19,996 (42.5%)	Pam Wolf 8,513 (18.09%)	Michael Chownyk 983 (2.09%)	Al Smith (FCP) 1,001 (2.13%)	Gerry Martiniuk
Chatham-KentEssex	Pat Hoy 23,022 (59.26%)	Dave Wilkinson 11,586 (29.82%)	Derry McKeever 2,893 (7.45%)	Jim Burgess 1,069 (2.75%)	David Rodman (F) 281 (0.72%)	Pat Hoy
Davenport	Tony Ruprecht 15,586 (58.81%)	Tom Smith 1,977 (7.46%)	Jordan Berger 7,243 (27.33%)	Mark O'Brien 907 (3.42%)	David Senater (Ind) 293 (1.11%) Franz Cauchi (F) 264 (1%) Nunzio Venuto (Lbt) 233 (0.88%)	Tony Ruprecht
Don Valley East	David Caplan 21,327 (56.8%)	Paul Sutherland 12,027 (32.03%)	Murphy Browne 3,058 (8.14%)	Dan Craig 558 (1.49%)	Ryan Kidd (FCP) 460 (1.23%) Wayne Simmons (F) 119 (0.32%)	David Caplan
Don Valley West	Kathleen Wynne 23,488 (52.59%)	David Turnbull 17,394 (38.95%)	Ali Naqvi 2,540 (5.69%)	Philip Hawkins 1,239 (2.77%)		David Turnbull
DufferinPeelWellingtonGrey	Dan Yake 14,859 (28.8%)	Ernie Eves 29,222 (56.64%)	Mitchel Healey 3,148 (6.1%)	Frank de Jong 3,161 (6.13%)	Dave Davies (FCP) 1,202 (2.33%)	Ernie Eves
Durham	Garry Minnie 18,590 (36.81%)	John O'Toole 23,814 (47.07%)	Teresa Williams 6,274 (12.41%)	Gordon MacDonald 1,183 (2.33%)	Cathy McKeever (F.) 707 (1.38%)	John O'Toole