1990 Ontario general election

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1990 Ontario general election

← 1987 September 6, 1990 1995 →
130 seats in the 35th Legislative Assembly of Ontario 66 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	64.45%[1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Bob Rae David Peterson Mike Harris Party New Democratic Liberal Progressive Conservative Leader since February 7, 1982 February 21, 1982 May 12, 1990 Leader's seat York South London Centre (lost re-election) Nipissing Last election 19 95 16 Seats won 74 36 20 Seat change 55 59 4 Popular vote 1,509,506 1,302,134 944,564 Percentage 37.6% 32.4% 23.5% Swing 11.9pp 14.9pp 1.2pp
Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Click the map for more details.
Premier before election David Peterson Liberal Premier after election Bob Rae New Democratic

The 1990 Ontario general election was held on September 6, 1990, to elect members of the 35th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada. The governing Ontario Liberal Party led by Premier David Peterson was unexpectedly defeated. Although the Peterson government, and Peterson himself, were very popular,^[2] he was accused of opportunism in calling an election just three years into his mandate. In a shocking upset, the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Bob Rae, won a majority government. This marked the first time the NDP had won government east of Manitoba, and to date the only time the NDP formed the government in Ontario.

Not even the NDP expected to come close to winning power. Rae had already made plans to retire from politics after the election; however, the NDP managed to take many seats in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from the Liberals, and Rae himself represented York South, in Metro Toronto. They also did better than ever before, or in some cases since, in many other cities and rural areas. The NDP finished only five points ahead of the Liberals in the popular vote, but due to the nature of the first-past-the-post electoral system, which ignores the popular vote and awards power based on the number of ridings won, the NDP's gains in the GTA decimated the Liberal caucus. The Liberals lost 59 seats, the second-worst defeat for a governing party in Ontario. At the time, it was the Liberals' worst showing in an Ontario election. Peterson himself was heavily defeated in London Centre by NDP challenger Marion Boyd, losing by 8,200 votes, one of the few times a provincial premier has lost their own seat.

Although Mike Harris' Progressive Conservative Party was unable to overcome voter distrust of the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, his party managed to make a net gain of four seats. Although Harris was from northern Ontario, the Tories were particularly weak in that region, placing fourth, behind the Liberals, NDP, and the right-wing Confederation of Regions Party (CoR) in six northern Ontario ridings (Algoma, Cochrane South, Nickel Belt, Sudbury, Sudbury East, and Sault Ste. Marie). The CoR also placed ahead of the Progressive Conservatives in the Renfrew North and Cornwall ridings in eastern Ontario. Although they received only 1.9% of the vote provincewide, they managed 7.8% in the 33 ridings in which they actually fielded a candidate.

The Green Party of Ontario placed third, ahead of the NDP, in Parry Sound riding, where former Liberal leadership candidate Richard Thomas was the party's candidate.

Before the election, an Act was passed, changing the name of Prince Edward—Lennox to Prince Edward—Lennox—South Hastings.^[3]

Elections to the 35th Parliament of Ontario (1990)^[1]

Political party		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
			Candidates	1987	Dissol.	1990	±	#	%	± (pp)
	New Democratic	Bob Rae	130	19	19	74	55	1,509,506	37.6%	11.9
	Liberal	David Peterson	130	95	93	36	59	1,302,134	32.4%	14.9
	Progressive Conservative	Mike Harris	130	16	17	20	4	944,564	23.5%	1.2
	Family Coalition	Donald Pennell	68	–	–	–	–	110,831	2.8%	1.5
	Confederation of Regions	Dean Wasson	33	–	–	–	–	75,873	1.9%	New
	Green	Katherine Mathewson	40	–	–	–	–	30,097	0.8%	0.7
	Libertarian	James Stock	45	–	–	–	–	24,613	0.6%	0.2
	Freedom	Robert Metz	10	–	–	–	–	6,015	0.1%
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	4	–	–	–	–	1,139	–	0.1
	Independent		15	–	–	–	–	13,307	0.3%
	Vacant				1
Total			615	130	130	130		4,018,079	100.00%
Blank and invalid ballots								52,575
Total ballots cast								4,070,654
Registered voters / turnout								6,315,949	64.5%	1.8

  = open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

  = incumbent had switched allegiance

  = incumbency arose from byelection gain

  = previously incumbent in another riding

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = multiple candidates

Party designations are as follows:

Two-tone colour boxes indicate ridings that turned over from the 1987 election, eg:

Of the 130 seats, 20 were open because of MPPs who chose not to stand for reelection, and voters in 63 seats changed allegiance from the previous election in 1987.

The following seats changed allegiance from 1987:

Those candidates not belonging to a major party, receiving more than 1,000 votes in the election, are listed below:

Tony Rizzo (NDP) became an independent MPP on October 10, 1990, after questions were raised about labour practices in his bricklaying firms. He would later rejoin the NDP caucus.

Dennis Drainville (NDP) became an independent MPP on April 28, 1993, as a protest against the Rae government's plans to introduce casinos to the province. He later resigned his seat in the legislature, resulting in a by-election.

Will Ferguson (NDP) became an independent MPP on April 30, 1993, following accusations relating to the Grandview scandal. He later rejoined the NDP caucus on June 21, 1994, having been cleared of all charges.

John Sola (L) became an independent MPP on May 11, 1993, after making comments about Canadian Serbs that most regarded as racist.

Peter North (NDP) became an independent MPP on October 27, 1993, claiming he had lost confidence in the Rae government. He tried to join the Progressive Conservatives, but was rebuffed.

Due to resignations, five by-elections were held between the 1990 and 1995 elections.

In addition, four seats were vacant in the final months of the legislature, as the sitting members resigned and by-elections were not held to replace them before the 1995 election:

• Bruce — Murray Elston (L) resigned October 31, 1994
• Kitchener — Will Ferguson (NDP) resigned October 8, 1994
• Markham — Don Cousens (PC) resigned September 30, 1994
• St. Andrew—St. Patrick — Zanana Akande (NDP) resigned August 31, 1994

• Politics of Ontario
• List of Ontario political parties
• Ontario Libertarian Party candidates, 1990 Ontario provincial election
• Premier of Ontario
• Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)