Eves ministry

The Eves ministry was the combined cabinet (formally the Executive Council of Ontario) that governed Ontario from April 15, 2002, to October 22, 2003. It was led by the 23rd premier of Ontario, Ernie Eves. The cabinet was made up of members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, which commanded a parliamentary majority.

The ministry replaced the Harris ministry following the 2002 PC Party leadership election, occurring after the resignation of Premier Mike Harris. The ministry governed through the final seventeen months of the 37th Parliament of Ontario.

After the PC Party lost the 2003 election, the Eves ministry resigned, and was succeeded by the McGuinty ministry led by Premier Dalton McGuinty.

History

The Eves Cabinet is formed

Eves assembled a cabinet of 25 ministers, which was sworn on April 15, 2002. He included in his cabinet all four of the candidates who had competed with him for the leadership of the PC Party weeks previously: Jim Flaherty (as Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation), Tony Clement (as Minister of Health and Long Term Care), Elizabeth Witmer (as Minister of Education and as Deputy Premier), and Chris Stockwell (as Minister of the Environment and Energy and House Leader).

Other high-profile portfolios went to David Young as Attorney General and Brad Clark as Minister of Labour. Future leadership contender Frank Klees (who would compete with Flaherty and Clement to succeed Eves as party leader in 2004) would eventually join the cabinet October 2, 2002 as Minister of tourism and recreation, though he had been unavailable to join Eves's ministry when it first launched.

Of the 25 original cabinet members, 22 had served the previous Harris ministry, including six who served for the entirety of its nearly seven-year duration (Dianne Cunningham, Chris Hodgson, Cam Jackson, Norm Sterling, David Tsubouchi, and Elizabeth Witmer). Sterling had also served nearly four years under Premier Davis (1981–1985), while Premier Eves and Bob Runciman had also a few months of experience under Premier Miller in 1985. Carl DeFaria, Tina Molinari, and Jerry Ouellette were the only cabinet members in the original Eves ministry without any experience.

The Eves ministry was originally organised into 27 portfolios (including the Premiership); Eves (premier and intergovernmental affairs) and David Tsubouchi (chair of Management Board of Cabinet and Minister of Culture) both served simultaneously in two ministerial positions at the outset of the ministry, and would do so for the duration.

There were six instances of ministerial portfolio reorganisation as Eves took over for Harris:

• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was reorganized into the "Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation" (assigned to Jim Flaherty); also an "Associate Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation" was created as a cabinet level position and assigned to David Turnbull.
• Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation was divided into the "Ministry of Tourism and Recreation" (assigned to Cam Jackson), and the "Ministry of Culture" (assigned to David Tsubouchi, who also served as Chair of the Cabinet Board of Management).
• Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services was reorganised out of the "Ministry of Community and Social Services" and the "Minister Responsible for Children." It was assigned to Brenda Elliott.
• Ministry of Public Safety and Security was created out of the merger of position of "Solicitor General" and "Ministry of Correctional Services" and assigned to Tim Hudak.
• Ministry of Municipal Affairs of Housing was assigned to Chris Hodgson; his position was augmented by two "associate ministers," including Tina Molinari assigned to focus on urban affairs, and Helen Johns, assigned to focus on rural affairs.
• "Associate Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs" was created as a standalone cabinet-level position and assigned to Jon Baird.
• Ministry of Energy and the Environment was created from the merger of its two previously independent portfolios and assigned to Chris Stockwell.

Change to the Eves Ministry

There were a further two instances of ministerial portfolio reorganisation on August 22, 2002:

• Ministry of Energy and Ministry of the Environment were created, as the merger of the portfolios at the beginning of the ministry was reversed. "Ministry of Energy" was assigned to John Baird, and the "Ministry of the Environment" remained with Chris Stockwell.
• "Associate Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs" was stripped of its standalone cabinet-level status. The incumbent of that position, John Baird, remained in a similar role as "Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs."

There were also three instances of cabinet membership changes:

• Cam Jackson stepped down October 2, 2002, resigning in scandal. He was replaced as Minister of Tourism and Recreation by newly appointed cabinet minister Frank Klees.
• Chris Hodgson abruptly stepped down January 13, 2003. His position at Municipal Affairs and Housing ultimately went to David Young, who was replaced as attorney general by Norm Sterling. In a minor cabinet shuffle that involved three cabinet members, newly appointed Ernie Hardeman filled the vacancy in cabinet left by Hodgson's departure and was appointed "Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for Rural Affairs."
• Chris Stockwell resigned from cabinet and from parliament July 17, 2003, to be replaced as Environment Minister by Jim Wilson, who was already in cabinet as Minister of Northern Development and Mines; Stockwell was replaced as House Leader by John Baird. Stockwell's spot in cabinet was assigned to Doug Galt who served as MWP, thus keeping the number of members of cabinet steady at 25, as it had been the whole time.

Summary

After the PC Party lost the 2003 election, the Eves ministry resigned, and was succeeded by the McGuinty ministry led by Dalton McGuinty.

At any given time during the Eves ministry, there were 25 cabinet members, while there were 27 ministries. Thus the Eves ministry has the same number of cabinet members as Harris had at the end of his ministry (24), but three more portfolios than Harris had (24); Eves tended to appoint "associate ministers" (naming four while Harris named one) while Harris tended to appointed "ministers without portfolio" (naming six while Eves named only one, and even then only very late in the ministry); Eves had as many as three ministers covering multiple portfolios at a time, while Harris only temporarily resorted to such a measure in one instance.

Only six women served in this ministry, but two women served in high-profile portfolios: Janet Ecker served as minister of finance, and Elizabeth Witmer served as both deputy premier and minister of education. Also serving were Dianne Cunningham, Tina Molinari, Helen Johns, and Brenda Elliott.

With the exception of David Tsubouchi (of Japanese-Canadian heritage), the entire cabinet was white.

All 25 incumbent cabinet members would contest their seats in the 2003 Ontario general election. Eleven would win their contests, including Ernie Eves himself, Norm Sterling, Bob Runciman, Frank Klees, Jim Flaherty, Tim Hudak, and Elizabeth Witmer; Fifteen, however, went down to defeat, including Janet Ecker, Tony Clement, and Dianne Cunningham. The Progressive Conservative Party saw their caucus shrink from 59 to 24, as the Eves ministry went down to defeat.

Trivia

Tony Clement's father John also served in the ministry of Bill Davis in the 1970s.

List of ministers

Notes