Out of the Blue: The Fall of the Tory Dynasty in Ontario

Donavon L. Porter is a public-school teacher in Haileybury, Ontario.

Rosemary Speirs has written an entertaining account of the decline and fall of the Tory dynasty in Ontario. Speirs traces the events as they developed from the time Bill Davis resigned, through the Conservative leadership convention and the selection of Frank Miller, to the election of June 1985 with its startling results, and to the Liberal-New Democratic Party accord, which led to the downfall of the extended Conservative reign in Ontario. The factors surrounding these events are glimpsed from both the public viewpoint and the internal political perspective.

Witnessed through the eyes of a political reporter at Queen’s Park, the account offers many interesting sketches of the factors and personalities involved in this pivotal episode in Ontario’s history. Speirs, in the pursuit of this story, has successfully managed to employ her many contacts in all three political parties. She has obviously tried to be very fair in her report, contacting as many of the individuals involved as was reasonably possible and allowing those concerned to explain the rationale behind decisions which in retrospect may appear to have been ill-conceived.

Not relying heavily upon an academic approach to the subject, Speirs has written an account which is somewhat lacking in depth and analysis, yet the overall result is most acceptable and should meet the requirements of the casual reader who is interested in an easily comprehended account of these events.