Revolution at Queen's Park: Essays on Governing Ontario

Randall White is the author of Voice of Region: On the Long Journey to
Senate Reform in Canada and Global Spin: Probing the Globalization
Debate, and the co-author of Toronto Women.

The inspiration for this collection of nine essays was a conference held
at the University of Western Ontario several months after the election
of the Mike Harris government in June 1995. The authors are for the most
part academic specialists, though a few have spent time in the
bureaucratic trenches as well. Several of the essays were originally
presented as papers at the UWO conference, and have been updated to take
account of more recent developments. The book as a whole still bears the
markings of its origins as an early attempt to assess the significance
of the 1995 Ontario election.

Inevitably, there is some disagreement about whether what has happened
north of the Great Lakes over the past few years constitutes a
“revolution.” Peter Woolstencroft maintains that the “future of
political debate in Ontario will be fundamentally changed as the
province confronts the globalization of its economy.” After 17 pages
of contrary argument and supporting statistics, John Wilson writes,
“[i]t does appear to be the same old Ontario.”

While the style of the book will not daunt more general readers, there
are no particularly dramatic conclusions or insightful arguments of the
sort that might invite broad public interest. Those with a keen interest
in Ontario politics will find each of the essays worthy of some
attention.