Ontario

C

Government and Politics

Ontario has a parliamentary form of government. The chief executive of Ontario is a lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the Canadian governor-general in council to a term of five years. The lieutenant-governor, holds a position that is largely honorary. The premier (called the prime minister until 1972), who is usually the leader of the majority party in the Ontario legislature, is the actual head of the provincial government and presides over the executive council or Cabinet. In addition to the premier, the executive council includes the treasurer, attorney-general, minister of industry, trade, and technology, minister of education, minister of health, and about 20 other officials. The unicameral Ontario Legislative Assembly contains 130 seats, including those of the premier and the members of the executive council. Members of the legislature are popularly elected to a term of up to five years. Ontario is represented in the Canadian Parliament by 24 senators, appointed by the Canadian governor-general in council, and by 106 members of the House of Commons, popularly elected to terms of up to five years.

IV

History

A

Early Inhabitants

The first explorer to visit parts of what is now Ontario was the Frenchman Étienne Brûlé, who ascended the Ottawa River in 1610-1611 and again in 1615 with the French explorer Samuel de Champlain; in the latter year they penetrated to Georgian Bay. A Jesuit mission was established among the Huron people soon afterwards; it was destroyed when the Huron were attacked by the Iroquois in 1649. The French constructed a number of forts and trading posts but made no attempts to colonize the region. The earliest English settlement in present-day Ontario was Moose Factory, a Hudson Bay post established in 1671. Rivalry, often bloody, developed between the British and French over the lucrative fur trade. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War between France and Great Britain, the region was established as British territory. In 1774 the area that is now Ontario was attached to the British colony of Quebec.

B

British Colony and the Creation of Upper Canada

After the American War of Independence thousands of Loyalists left the new republic to settle in the southern part of the Ontario region. Great Britain created the separate province of Upper Canada with the Constitutional Act (1791), which also established a limited form of representative government. Authority was concentrated in the hands of a small colonial elite, who gave the region a distinctly conservative cast. The arrival of a host of immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland during the next three decades perpetuated Ontario's British character into the mid-19th century.

In the 1820s the authoritarian structure of colonial life was attacked by the Reformers, and in 1837 the Upper Canadians, led by William Lyon Mackenzie, rose in rebellion. This rebellion was defeated, and in 1841 the British government united Upper Canada and Lower Canada (Quebec) into a single province in a vain effort to Anglicize the French Catholic population. A new generation of English and French Reformers then became the dominant force in politics; they introduced a modern form of party government, built a tax-supported public school system, and established an alliance between government and business to construct railways. The equal representation of the two regions in one parliament, however, brought political deadlock that was broken in 1867 by confederation, in which Upper and Lower Canada became the separate provinces of Ontario and Quebec respectively.

C

The Province of Ontario

With 44 per cent of the Canadian population in 1871, Ontario was the dominant member in the new Dominion. The manufacturing sector grew enormously in the 1880s and again in the 1900s, as hydroelectric developments at Niagara Falls ensured plentiful power. The opening of new mines in northern Ontario after 1900 created additional sources of wealth. These foundations ensured Ontario's economic dominance throughout the 20th century. Toronto slowly surpassed Montreal in the realms of finance, commerce, and industry, becoming Canada's leading city during the 1970s.

Ontario has always attracted large numbers of immigrants. During the 19th century the population was made up largely of people of British descent. After 1900 there arrived a new wave of southern and eastern Europeans. A second wave of European immigrants arrived after 1945. More recently, Ontario has attracted many people from Commonwealth lands in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. By 1986 over a third of Greater Toronto's 3.4 million people were immigrants, giving the city a cosmopolitan character.

D

Political Developments

In local politics the long-term rule of parties geared to economic growth has predominated. From Confederation to 1905 Ontario was governed almost entirely by the Liberal party (successors to the Reformers). Its Progressive Conservative replacement was even more committed to state-assisted development. Between 1919 and 1923 a farmer-labour coalition held power, eventually losing office to the Progressive Conservatives. The crisis of the Great Depression brought to power in 1934 a Liberal party that proved to be sympathetic to business interests. In 1943 the Conservatives were returned to office and, under a succession of leaders, they governed for more than 40 years. Their rule ended in 1985 with the election of the Liberal David Peterson, who headed a reform administration allied with the New Democratic Party (NDP) until 1987. Disenchantment with incumbent politicians overwhelmed Peterson in the 1990 election and brought to power Robert Keith Rae, Ontario's first NDP premier. However, the NDP was itself defeated in the 1995 elections, having failed to satisfy the electorate. It was replaced by a revitalized Progressive Conservative Party, whose tenure of office coincided with the return of general prosperity to the economy in the mid- and late 1990s. The party was subsequently re-elected in 1999.