Bonniecanuck
DIEF WILL BE THE CHIEF AGAIN
- Location
- Formerly Hong Kong, currently London
- Pronouns
- she/her + they/them
The year 1990 was a high-water mark for Ontario Premier David Peterson. Having first become the province's head of government in 1985 through a Liberal minority government with backing from Bob Rae's NDP that ended Ontario's 42 year long Progressive Conservative dynasty, Peterson proceeded to win the province's largest ever majority government by seat count in 1987, thrashing both the PCs and NDP. The resultant three years saw a significant reformist agenda ranging from full public funding for the Catholic school board to pension reform to the construction of the SkyDome. In spite of increasingly (and unprecedentedly) vicious assaults against Peterson from the Opposition and media, and backlash against Peterson due to his support for the Meech Lake Accord, the Liberals were still supported by the public and the polls. Banking on the advice of aides, Peterson called an early general election, hoping to capitalise on the fractured opposition, work off the current polling to maintain their majority before a crisis hit, and pre-empt a Liberal defeat in the event of a recession later.
Then everything went wrong.
Public consensus on the early election was that it was not just unnecessary, but arrogant and exploitative on the part of the Liberals. But the Liberals would still win, right? The new PC leader Mike Harris was an inexperienced newcomer whose only prior portfolio involved managing a golf club. What would the electorate do, vote NDP?
Oh.
Oh.
To say that the Liberals' defeat was a shock for everyone was an understatement - a solid majority government had plummeted to the point that even Peterson lost his seat to the NDP candidate. Then things got worse. Just 17 hours after Bob Rae was sworn in as Premier of Ontario, the recession hit. Its effects and the resultant infamy of Rae Days led to the NDP becoming the butt of jokes from Ontario Young Liberals too young to remember when Bob Rae was the federal Liberal Party leader. The 1995 election brought the reign of the golf club manager from Nipissing to Queen's Park. The resultant Common Sense Revolution saw the Blue Tories wipe the red clean from the party and government as spending cuts penetrated every last aspect of Ontarian life. And as the government survived every last crisis and protest arrayed against it, from the shooting of an Indigenous protester by the OPP to the forced amalgamation of Toronto and Ottawa to the Leafs disappointing Toronto fans over and over again to thousands of infections from e. coli and SARS outbreaks to the utter humiliation of the Mayor of Toronto calling in the Canadian Army to shovel snow, Ontario suffered death by a thousand (spending) cuts. Harris lasted two terms before retiring in 2002, and while it seemed that the new PC dynasty might be entrenched, they made the mistake of making a campaign ad that happened to contain a very obscure reference to Buffy.
And all this because of an early snap election.
So rewinding the clock a bit: suppose the unlikely scenario where Peterson doesn't call the election. What next? It's likely that the Liberals would have been ousted nonetheless, especially since the recession was still on track to hit all the same. But if the NDP were to do much the same as they did in OTL, could they have avoided being less thoroughly trounced and hounded by the stigma of Rae Days, especially with the extra year for the economy to recover? And with the very different conditions that the Liberals would face with their defeat, would Peterson still stay on as leader, and if not, who would replace him?
Then everything went wrong.
Public consensus on the early election was that it was not just unnecessary, but arrogant and exploitative on the part of the Liberals. But the Liberals would still win, right? The new PC leader Mike Harris was an inexperienced newcomer whose only prior portfolio involved managing a golf club. What would the electorate do, vote NDP?
Oh.
Oh.
To say that the Liberals' defeat was a shock for everyone was an understatement - a solid majority government had plummeted to the point that even Peterson lost his seat to the NDP candidate. Then things got worse. Just 17 hours after Bob Rae was sworn in as Premier of Ontario, the recession hit. Its effects and the resultant infamy of Rae Days led to the NDP becoming the butt of jokes from Ontario Young Liberals too young to remember when Bob Rae was the federal Liberal Party leader. The 1995 election brought the reign of the golf club manager from Nipissing to Queen's Park. The resultant Common Sense Revolution saw the Blue Tories wipe the red clean from the party and government as spending cuts penetrated every last aspect of Ontarian life. And as the government survived every last crisis and protest arrayed against it, from the shooting of an Indigenous protester by the OPP to the forced amalgamation of Toronto and Ottawa to the Leafs disappointing Toronto fans over and over again to thousands of infections from e. coli and SARS outbreaks to the utter humiliation of the Mayor of Toronto calling in the Canadian Army to shovel snow, Ontario suffered death by a thousand (spending) cuts. Harris lasted two terms before retiring in 2002, and while it seemed that the new PC dynasty might be entrenched, they made the mistake of making a campaign ad that happened to contain a very obscure reference to Buffy.
And all this because of an early snap election.
So rewinding the clock a bit: suppose the unlikely scenario where Peterson doesn't call the election. What next? It's likely that the Liberals would have been ousted nonetheless, especially since the recession was still on track to hit all the same. But if the NDP were to do much the same as they did in OTL, could they have avoided being less thoroughly trounced and hounded by the stigma of Rae Days, especially with the extra year for the economy to recover? And with the very different conditions that the Liberals would face with their defeat, would Peterson still stay on as leader, and if not, who would replace him?