Mike Harris

Mike Harris (born Jan. 23, 1945, Toronto, Ont., Can.) is a Canadian politician who served as premier of Ontario (1995–2002).

Harris grew up in North Bay, Ont. He attended classes at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University), Laurentian University at Sudbury, and Nipissing University College, North Bay, and received a teaching certificate from North Bay Teachers’ College. For several years he taught seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics in North Bay before joining his father in business. He owned and operated tourism and recreation businesses in the Nipissing and Parry Sound areas of Ontario.

Elected to the Nipissing Board of Education in 1975, Harris served as its chairman from 1977 to 1981. For one term he was president of the Northern Ontario Trustees Association (1980–81), after which he entered provincial politics. Harris was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the general election of 1981 to represent the riding of Nipissing. He served as parliamentary assistant to the minister of the environment and was chairman of public accounts. He sat on the general government and the resources development committees. In 1985 Harris was appointed minister of natural resources and minister of energy. From 1985 to 1990 he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) in the legislature. After the defeat of the Progressive Conservative government in 1987, Harris served as critic (shadow minister for the minority party) for the revenue, labour, housing, finance, and Northern Development ministries. It was as finance critic that he developed his party’s fiscal policy. On May 12, 1990, Harris was elected leader of the Ontario PCP, and four years later he released Common Sense Revolution, a plan to cut taxes and reduce the size and the cost of government.

On June 8, 1995, the PCP won a legislative majority in the provincial election, and later that month Harris was sworn in as the 22nd premier of Ontario. Harris’s administration represented a sharp departure from the socialism of the previous New Democratic Party government. Perceived as a small-town man with the common touch, Harris had gained a reputation as a crusader for tax relief and for a smaller, less interventionist government. Thus, he began immediately to implement what he called his “Common Sense Revolution,” and his policy changes in the first months of his administration were significant. The government reduced welfare benefits payments by more than 20 percent and repealed the anti-scab labour legislation passed by the previous government. Harris centralized the administration of the government, and his 20-member cabinet was the smallest in modern Ontario history.

Harris led his party to a commanding victory in the 1999 elections, but his pledge to run the province like a business had some unforeseen ramifications. Deregulation of water testing and cuts to environmental programs were cited as causes of a deadly E. coli outbreak in the town of Walkerton, and clashes with labour unions led to some of the largest strikes in Canadian history. Declining public support led Harris to resign in 2002, and he was replaced by his finance minister, Ernie Eves.