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Results 1999 Ontario Provincial Election:

Elected:

PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES  59 Ridings
LIBERALS 35 Ridings
NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY 9 Ridings

Popular Vote
PC 45
LIBS 40.1
NDP 15

Howie Hampton has been elected in Rainy River.
Dalton McGuinty is elected in Ottawa.

Toronto Results - The Democracy Model group that the writer of this site helped found did a number of sign demos in Toronto swing ridings attempting to oust Tories. Members of Citizens for Local Democracy aided us. The Tory candidates we targeted all lost, so there was a small victory for us.

Liberal Mike Colle won in Eglinton Lawrence.
Dave Johnson is out in Don Valley East and Liberal Dave Caplan is in.
Isabel Basset is gone and Liberal Michael Bryant is elected in St. Paul's.
NDPer Rosario Marchese won in Trinity Spadina.
Liberal Gerry Philips won in Scarbourough Agincourt
Liberal Tony Ruprecht was elected in Davenport
Liberal Alvin Curling won in Scarbourough Rouge River.
Liberal George Smitherman won in Toronto Centre Rosedale.
NDPer Frances Lankin won in Beaches East York.
NDPer Marilyn Churley won  for the NDP in Broadview Greenwood.
Liberal Gerard Kennedy is elected in High Park.
Liberal Monte Kwinter won in York Centre
Liberal Joe Cordiano won in York South Weston
Liberal Sergio Maro won in York West
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G.P. Murray's released a demographic profile of the election results, with the ridings broken down by age, education, income and proportion of homeowners, tenants, visible minorities, etc.
The analysis shows that the two most consistent indicators of voting behaviour are income and home ownership. Of the top 10 ridings in median household income, the Tories won all 10. And of the 10 ridings with the highest percentage of home ownership, the Tories won nine. (Conversely, of the 10 with the most renters, the Liberals won eight.)  Another way of putting this is to say that the suburbs voted massively Tory - not just the 905 regions around Toronto but also the suburban belts around Ottawa, London, and Hamilton.

Spending Facts say Mike Harris Bought Power in Ontario - June.2000
   Premier Mike Harris' Conservatives spent $17.9 million in last year's election, in comparison to the Liberals' $7.2 million and the NDP's $5.6 million.
   The key to the Tory election success was to buy votes with $7 million dollars of ads. They also used another 100 million of public money to buy government ads while they were in power. The Conservatives' donor list is a who's who of corporate Canada.
   The Liberals now owe more than $4.5 million and are renegotiating their bank loans. The NDP are now $1.1 million in the red.
   The Tories have 59 seats in the Legislature, the Liberals hold 35 and the NDP have nine. To gain a 15-seat majority through a minority of the popular vote, the Tories spent nearly 10 times the amount of the combined opposition. Using their own funds and public funds in government ads. The Tory majority would have evaporated and they would have lost if as few as 16,000 votes in key ridings had shifted. This shows that the extra millions the Tories spent on polling squeaked them through to victory.
   Citizens and lovers of democracy can only view this as frightening. The Tories are only in power due to money, and most it was our public dollars.
   There will be no true democracy in Ontario as long as our electoral system allows the Tories such a tremendous financial advantage. The system has to be changed.
   In 1995, during a longer campaign involving more ridings, the Liberals spent $7.4 million, the Tories $7.2 million and the NDP $5.3 million. We need electoral laws to equalize spending by major parties.
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The PCs don't have a majority of the popular vote, but the PCs are still taking a majority government. This shows that we need proportional representation. More than 55 percent of the people in Ontario do not support the Tory agenda, and they will likely receive zero representation from this PC government. Our system of democracy relies on an unwritten agreement that the victor will represent all of the people. Lately elected politicians have been representing only their special interests and forgetting the people.

On Television some commentators complained about protesters and picketers yet none of them have ideas for involving citizens in government or even granting them representation so that they aren't left with picket signs as their only option. Our system elects a dictator every four years. Politicians know this, and none of them will work to build a better democratic system that is truly government by and for the people.

Tenants for example voted Isabel Basset out and this government will not listen to tenants - so are those who protest villains?

Dave Johnson was also voted out and this shows citizens were unhappy with his forced megacity and education changes. So are those who protested on those issues villains?

* If you look at the winners you see how hard it is to defeat incumbent candidates. At the municipal level in the Toronto Megacity a system is being set up where incumbents are virtually guaranteed re-election

Strategic Voting - It did work as it brought the Liberals up in the popular vote -- if done correctly strategic voting could lead to a PC defeat in the next election. Even with strategic voting, one party has to get over the PCs in popular vote and that is hard to do when they have more advertising money.
Without strategic voting it would have been a slaughter and the PCs would have got a massive majority of 68 to 72 seats. As it is by proportion they are down 12 seats and that makes them easier to beat next time.

The Media in declaring Harris the victor days in advance may actually have won this election for him. The popular vote was close and the media launched such a Harris victory blitz that they probably handed him the boost he needed to win a majority.

Result - If Harris hadn't redistributed the ridings in his favour he might have lost. If he hadn't shortened the race time he might have lost it. If he hadn't spent 100 million in public money for advertising he might have lost it. If the media hadn't promoted his victory well ahead he might have lost it.

The Pundits are all calling this democracy. I call it a poor form of democracy. There is no positive spin you can put on this PC victory or the way our system allows a well-to-do-minority to victimize the majority -- which is composed of the weakest members of society like the disabled, tenants, the unemployed and so on.
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