David Peterson
David Robert Peterson is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty.
Background
Peterson was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Clarence Marwin Peterson and Laura Marie Scott, and has two siblings, former MPP Tim Peterson and former MP Jim Peterson. His parents were both born in Saskatchewan. His father was born to Norwegian immigrant farmers who had previously homesteaded in North Dakota. In the early 1930s, Clarence Peterson joined the newly-formed Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and was present at the conference where it adopted the Regina Manifesto. Looking for work during the Great Depression, he moved to Ontario and in 1936 was living in Toronto, where he found a job as a salesman with Union Carbide. The job eventually took him to London, Ontario, where he worked for the company for several years before establishing a wholesale electronics business, C.M. Peterson Co. Ltd, in 1944. He was elected to city council as an alderman in the early 1950s and joined the Ontario Liberal Party, running as its candidate in the 1955 Ontario general election in London North, losing to future premier John Robarts, and ran again as a federal Liberal candidate in 1963 in London.Peterson grew up in London and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in political science and philosophy and his law degree from the University of Toronto. He was called to the bar in 1969. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1980 and later was appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada in 1992 by Brian Mulroney.
At the age of twenty-six, he became president of C.M. Peterson Company Limited, a wholesale electronics firm founded by his father. He holds four Honorary degrees including a doctor of laws from the University of Western Ontario and is a knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour of France and a member of the Order of La Pléiade. In 2009, he became a member of the Order of Ontario.
Peterson married actress Shelley Matthews in 1974 and they have since raised three children. He is the younger brother of Jim Peterson, formerly a federal Liberal MP and cabinet minister. Both his sister-in-law Deb Matthews and his brother, Tim Peterson, were elected to the Ontario legislature in the 2003 provincial election while Deb Matthews was re-elected in 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Politics
Peterson was elected as the Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament for London Centre in the 1975 provincial election. Less than one year later, he campaigned for the leadership of the party following Robert Nixon's resignation. Despite his inexperience, Peterson nevertheless came within 45 votes of defeating Stuart Smith on the third and final ballot of a delegated convention held on January 25, 1976. Smith presented an image of an articulate intellectual who some delegates said reminded them of Pierre Trudeau while Peterson came across as similar to then Premier Bill Davis. Convention delegates also thought that Peterson, a neophyte MPP at 31 years old, was too young and his convention address which he later characterized as the "worst speech in modern political history" came across as stilted and over rehearsed.Peterson was re-elected in the provincial elections of 1977 and 1981. He ran again for the Liberal leadership in 1982, after Smith resigned.
The convention was held on February 21, 1982. This time his convention speech was better. Although not very inspiring, it was viewed as 'statesmanlike' and effective. He won on the second ballot defeating the more left-leaning Sheila Copps with 55% of the vote. In his acceptance speech Peterson said that he would move party to the 'vibrant middle, the radical centre', and stressed economic growth as a way to increase support for social services. Observers from the other parties felt he was trying to move the Liberal party more to the right, away from values that Smith promoted.
Liberal leader
Peterson worked to pay off the party's debt from the 1981 election and accomplished that by the end of the year and was working on long-term debt. Peterson performed well as opposition leader and was popular in the press. The party started to use him as a label rather than 'Liberal' referring to 'David Peterson's Ontario'. A by-election loss to the NDP was attributed to dislike of Federal Liberals. In 1984, a Liberal backbencher, J. Earl McEwen crossed the floor to join the Tories. In 1984, four of the party's senior MPPs quit provincial politics to run for the federal Liberal government led by John Turner, who had just won the party leadership to succeed a retiring Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister; ending up the federal Liberals' support collapsed and they were badly defeated in the election by Brian Mulroney. Polling in late 1984 showed Peterson's Liberals consistently trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives. Premier Davis still polled as the most popular leader.Peterson's fortunes improved when Davis retired as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in early 1985. His successor, Frank Miller, took the party further to the right, and was unable to convince the electorate of his leadership abilities. Though Miller's Tories began the election in 1985 with a significant lead, Peterson's Liberals gradually increased their support throughout the campaign. Peterson frequently campaigned in his red jogging suit and projected the image of a younger urban leader, contrasting with Miller who was increasingly seen as too old and rural. To the surprise of many, Peterson won a narrow plurality of the popular vote. However, at the time rural areas were still slightly over represented in the Legislative Assembly. As a result, the Liberals won 48 seats, while the Progressive Conservatives 52 which was enough for a minority government.
Shortly after the election, NDP leader Bob Rae called Peterson to negotiate. Rae also initiated talks with Premier Miller but the talks with the Liberals proved more fruitful. Rae and Peterson signed a "Liberal-NDP Accord" in which the NDP agreed to support a Liberal government in office for two years. The Liberals, in turn, agreed to implement some policies favoured by the NDP. Rae wanted to have a coalition with representation in cabinet but Peterson indicated that he would not accept a coalition. To make sure the public would not misconstrue the agreement as a coalition, Peterson made sure that there would be no photos of him and Rae signing the agreement.
Premier of Ontario
Leadership style
The Liberals and NDP defeated Miller's government on June 18, 1985, when Rae introduced a motion of no confidence on the speech from the throne. Peterson was sworn in as Premier of Ontario eight days later. Peterson's top three cabinet ministers were Robert Nixon as Treasurer, Sean Conway as Education Minister, and Ian Scott as Attorney General.After the expiration of the Liberal-NDP Accord in 1987, the Liberals called another provincial election, and won the second-largest majority government in Ontario's history, taking 95 seats out of 130, at the expense of the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives who dropped to third place in the legislature. After the 1987 election, Peterson told the newly enlarged caucus at their first meeting that his popularity may have got most of them elected, but warned that he would likely need their help getting re-elected next time, since he understood that his massive victory had created expectations that simply couldn’t be met.
Domestic policy
Peterson's government introduced several pieces of progressive legislation. It eliminated "extra billing" by doctors, brought in pay equity provisions, and reformed the province's rent review and labour negotiation laws. His government also brought in pension reform, expanded housing construction, and resolved a long-standing provincial controversy by honouring the Davis Tories promise to extend full funding to Catholic secondary schools. Peterson was also a vocal opponent of free trade with the United States in 1988. His administration was less activist in its later years, though it still introduced progressive measures on environmental protection, eliminated health insurance premiums, and brought in no-fault automobile insurance for the province.Peterson's prominent role in creating and promoting the "Meech Lake" constitutional accord gained criticism from some. While initially popular, this attempt at revising Canada's constitution proved extremely divisive in most of English-speaking Canada. Many believed that it gave too many concessions to Quebec, while others believed that it weakened the federal government's authority in relation to the provinces. Peterson's continued support for the accord, in the face of increased opposition, damaged his personal popularity in Ontario. The accord was not endorsed by Manitoba and Newfoundland, and did not pass. As Ontario's economy slowed down, the public also questioned Peterson's devotion to nation-building issues such as the Meech Lake Accord, instead of "more mundane kitchen-table issues such as rising taxes and skyrocketing auto-insurance premiums".
Peterson and the Liberals also faced controversy over the Patti Starr affair. Starr, a prominent Liberal fundraiser, was found to have improperly diverted money from a land development scheme and charitable organizations to the provincial Liberal Party. Several Liberal cabinet members were recipients of her largesse including Health Minister Elinor Caplan, Transportation Minister Ed Fulton and Revenue Minister Bernard Grandmaitre. These revelations led to a cabinet shuffle by Peterson in which five ministers who had received contributions lost their positions. On June 24, 1989, Peterson ordered a judicial inquiry be set up to investigate the matter. Initially Starr wanted to participate in the inquiry saying, "I stand by all the things I participated in ... I think the inquiry will be a positive thing." Later on she moved to have the inquiry quashed. In January 1990, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed her request. Two weeks later the Supreme Court of Canada gave her leave to appeal. In a decision in April, the Supreme Court declared the inquiry unconstitutional. Starr successfully argued that an inquiry investigating criminal charges would deny subjects their full legal rights. Public inquiries can compel witnesses to testify but criminal trial defendants can refuse to testify. Starr was eventually sentenced to six months' jail time. Although no-one in Peterson's administration was accused of criminal activity, the scandal eroded public confidence in the integrity of the government. Polls showed that more than half of respondents felt that Peterson had poorly handled the matter and 61% felt that it revealed widespread corruption in the government.