Cycling into Saigon: The Conservative Transition in Ontario

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom and The History of Fort St. Joseph, and the co-author of
Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American

The morning after Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservatives won
Ontario’s provincial election of 1995, the first member of his team to
enter the Premier’s Office said that he felt “like the first Viet
Cong soldier cycling into Saigon after the Americans had left.” This
book, based largely on interviews with Ontario politicians, bureaucrats,
and political advisers, examines political transitions in Ontario.

The Progressive Conservatives governed Ontario from 1943 until 1985.
“Until 1985,” the authors write, “Ontario politicians and
bureaucrats saw transitions as exotic rituals that happened
elsewhere.” Inexperienced as they were, they soon faced three such
transitions: from the Progressive Conservatives to the Liberals in 1985,
from the Liberals to the New Democrats in 1990, and from the New
Democrats to the Progressive Conservatives in 1995.

Whereas the transitions of 1985 and 1995 were smooth, that of 1990 was
“the transition from hell.” The former transitions were anticipated;
the transitions of 1990 was such a surprise that a number of civil
servants were vacationing when it began. The 1985 election happened on
May 2, when the Progressive Conservatives won a slight plurality but not
as many seats as the other two parties combined. The PCs attempted to
govern, but the opposition parties made clear that they would defeat the
government at the earliest opportunity and that they had an agenda; by
publicizing the contents of that agenda, they gave the civil service
time to prepare. In 1995, hardly anyone expected the New Democrats to
win a second term; again it could prepare (this third transition
receives more space than the previous two combined).

The authors write clearly about a subject that has received little
attention from political scientists or historians. Their book’s
greatest appeal will necessarily be in Ontario, but it is relevant to
politicians and bureaucrats in any country with the Westminster
parliamentary system.