Ernie Eves

Ernest "Ernie" Larry Eves (born June 17, 1946 in Windsor , Ontario ) is a Canadian politician who was between 2002 and 2004 chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and from 2002 to 2003 Prime Minister of Ontario .

Life

Lawyer and member of the Legislative Assembly

Eves came from a working class family in Windsor, Ontario. On his mother's side, his ancestors were Ukrainians .

Eves graduated after school to study law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University . After being admitted to the bar, he began practicing as a lawyer in the law firm Green and Eves in 1972 .

He began his political career with the Conservatives. On March 19, 1981, he was elected as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCP) for the first time to the Parliament of Ontario . There he initially represented the constituency of Parry Sound until February 8, 2001 , most recently since October 20, 1999, the Parry Sound-Muskoka constituency . At the beginning of his membership in parliament he was from April 30, 1981 to April 18, 1983 Chairman of the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and other professional ethics, and then between April 27 and October 12, 1983 Chairman of the Standing Committee on Justice Administration.

On September 12, 1983, Prime Minister Bill Davis assumed his first junior ministerial office and was both Parliamentary Assistant to the Secretary of State for Colleges and Universities and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education until February 25, 1985. March 1985 served as Provincial Secretary for Resource Development.

Ministers in the Miller cabinet and opposition years

On March 22, 1985, Eves was appointed by Prime Minister Frank Miller for the first time as a minister in the government of the Province of Ontario and held the office of Minister for Skills Development until May 17, 1985. He then served as Minister of Community and Social Services from May 17, 1985 to the end of Miller's term on June 26, 1985.

After the PCP's defeat in the elections of May 2, 1985, he acted as chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts from July 11 to December 6, 1985 and was also the spokesman for the from September 19, 1985 to April 7, 1986 opposition PCP group for community and social services and then between 7 April 1986 and 27 March 1987 group spokesman for resource policy.

During this time Eves was between April 7, 1986 and July 31, 1987 also First Parliamentary Secretary of the opposition PCP faction (Chief Opposition Whip ) and from March 27 to July 31, 1987 spokesman for the opposition for colleges and universities as well for skill development. On October 8, 1987, he became Commissioner of the Committee on Domestic Economics.

He then acted from November 3, 1987 to January 1, 1990 as Parliamentary Managing Director of the PCP parliamentary group and, at the same time, from November 3, 1987 to July 30, 1990, as his parliamentary group's health policy spokesman. In addition, he was from January 1 to July 30, 1990 as the leader of the third largest group in the legislative assembly.

After elections on September 6, 1990, Eves was between October 3, 1990 and April 28, 1995 chairman of the PCP parliamentary group in the legislative assembly and thus leader of the third largest party. At the same time he was spokesman for his group for northern development from October 3, 1990 to April 14, 1993, and at the same time between October 3, 1990 and March 8, 1992, spokesman for mining and health policy. He was then from March 8, 1992 to April 14, 1993 spokesman for intergovernmental affairs and then between April 14, 1993 and April 28, 1995, parliamentary group spokesman for consumers and business relations.

Minister in the Harris Cabinet and temporary withdrawal from politics

After the election of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the elections to the Legislative Assembly on June 8, 1995, Eves was appointed Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the Provincial Government of Ontario by Prime Minister Mike Harris on June 26, 1995 and held this cabinet position until February 8 2001. At the same time he continued to function as chairman of the PCP parliamentary group between June 26, 1995 and August 16, 1996, and as such was leader of the government majority in the legislative assembly. As longtime Treasury Secretary, he was instrumental in the unprecedented tax and spending cuts that shaped the policy of the Harris administration.

On February 8, 2001, Eves resigned from his ministerial offices and also resigned his mandate in the legislative assembly in order to switch to the private sector. He became vice chairman of the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston and a senior partner in a law firm in Toronto.

Prime Minister 2002 to 2003 and electoral defeat in 2003

After the resignation of Mike Harris, Eves was elected to his successor as chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario on March 23, 2002 and was also elected to his successor as Prime Minister on April 15, 2002, although he was not yet a member of the again at that time Legislative Assembly was. At the same time, on April 15, 2002, he took over the office of Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs. One of the most prominent members of his administration was the Secretary of State for Enterprise, Opportunities and Innovation, Jim Flaherty , who later served in the 28th Canadian Cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper .

In a by-election in the Dufferin — Peel — Wellington — Gray constituency , Eves was re-elected to the Ontario Legislative Assembly, to which he was a member until February 1, 2005.

As prime minister, he did not succeed in retaining the existing constituencies of the PCP and the promises of further tax cuts, the prohibition of teachers' strikes and the elimination of increasing homelessness on the streets of Ontario did not help him, the impending defeat in the elections to the legislative assembly averted on October 2, 2003. In these elections the PCP lost 35 of its 59 seats and was represented by only 24 members in the 103-member parliament. The strongest force and thus the election winner was the Ontario Liberal Party (LP), which more than doubled its result from 35 to 72 mandates. The third strongest force was the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP), which however lost two of its nine seats and was now represented by only seven MPs.

A highlight of his tenure as prime minister was the visit of the Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in May 2003, to whom Eves and several Canadian ministers were introduced as one of the leading representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. The prime minister assured Yushchenko of his support.

On October 22, 2003, Dalton McGuinty of the Liberal Party succeeded him as Prime Minister, while he was the official opposition leader as chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario . At the same time he was the opposition spokesman for intergovernmental affairs.

Eves resigned as party chairman and opposition leader on September 28, 2004 and then became John Tory . On February 1, 2005, he also voluntarily renounced his mandate in the legislative assembly and withdrew from political life.

Web links

• Entry on the Ontario Legislative Assembly homepage
• Short biography in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographies of Canadians (partly) of Ukrainian origin: here is the biography of Ernest Larry Eves
2. ↑ Canadian Provinces (rulers.org)
3. ↑ Yushchenko's visit to Canada offers vision of Ukraine's future , by Oksana Zakydalsky, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 8, 2003, no. 23, Vol. LXXI.