Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario
Abbreviation	PC
Leader	Doug Ford
President	Michael Diamond
House leader	Steve Clark
Founded	1854; 171 years ago (1854) (as Conservative Party of Canada West)
Preceded by	Upper Canada Tories
Headquarters	400-56 Aberfoyle Crescent,Toronto,Ontario, Canada
Youth wing	Ontario Young Progressive Conservative Association
Membership(2018)	133,000[1]
Ideology	Conservatism (Canadian)
Political position	Centre-right
Colours	Blue
Seats in theLegislature	79 / 124
Website
ontariopc.ca
Politics of Ontario Political parties Elections

TheProgressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC;French:Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to theOntario PC Party, or simply thePCs, colloquially known as theTories, is acentre-right political party inOntario,Canada.

During its uninterrupted governance from 1943 to 1985, the Ontario PC Party adhered to the ideology ofRed Toryism, favouring government intervention in the economy, increased spending on infrastructure, education and health care and being progressive on social issues such as equal pay for women, anti-discrimination laws, voting rights forFirst Nations people andFrench-language services. In the 1990s, the party underwent a shift toBlue Toryism after the election ofMike Harris as leader, who waspremier from 1995 to 2002 and favoured a "Common Sense Revolution" platform of cutting taxes and government spending whilebalancing the budget throughsmall government. The PCs lost power in2003 but came back to win amajority government in2018 underDoug Ford. They were reelected in2022 and2025.

The first Conservative Party inUpper Canada was made up ofUnited Empire Loyalists and supporters of the wealthyFamily Compact that ruled the colony. Onceresponsible government was granted in response to the1837 Rebellions, the Tories emerged as moderate reformers who opposed the radical policies of theReformers and then theClear Grits.

The modern Conservative Party originated in theLiberal-Conservative coalition founded by SirJohn A. Macdonald andGeorge-Étienne Cartier in 1854. It is a variant of this coalition that formed the first government in Ontario withJohn Sandfield Macdonald aspremier.

Until becoming the Progressive Conservatives in 1942, the party was officially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Association of Ontario", reflecting its liberal-conservative origins, but became widely known as the Conservative Party.

John Sandfield Macdonald was actually a Liberal, previously co-led the first and only Liberal ministry in the United province of Canada, and sat concurrently as aLiberal Party of Canada member of Parliament (MP) in theHouse of Commons of Canada. He was however an ally of John A. Macdonald (though not a relative). His government was initially a true coalition of Liberals and Conservatives under his leadership but soon the more radical Reformers bolted to the opposition and Sandfield Macdonald was left leading what was essentially a conservative coalition that included some Liberals under the Liberal-Conservative banner. After losing power in 1871, this conservative coalition began to dissolve. What was originally a party that includedCatholics andProtestants became an almost exclusively English and Protestant party, more and more dependent on the ProtestantOrange Order for support, and even for its leadership. The party became opposed to funding forseparate (Catholic) schools, opposed to language rights forFrench-Canadians, and distrustful of immigrants. Paradoxically, an element of the party gained a reputation for being pro-labour as a result of links between the Orange Order and the labour movement.

After 33 years inOpposition, the Tories returned to power underJames P. Whitney, who led a progressive administration in its development of the province. The Whitney government initiated massivepublic works projects such as the creation ofOntario Hydro. It also enacted reactionary legislation (such asRegulation 17) against the French-Canadian population in Ontario. The Tories were in power for all but five years from 1905 to 1934. After the death of Whitney in 1914, however, they lacked vision and became complacent. The Tories lost power to theUnited Farmers of Ontario in the1919 election but were able to regain office in1923 election due to the UFO's disintegration and divisions in theOntario Liberal Party. They were defeated byMitch Hepburn's Liberals in 1934 due to their inability to cope with theGreat Depression.

Late in the 1930s and early in the 1940s, the Conservatives re-organized and developed new policies. Rather than continue to oppose government spending and intervention, a policy which hurt the party politically in the time of the Great Depression, the Conservatives changed their policies to support government action where it would lead to economic growth.

The party changed its name to the "Progressive Conservative" party after its federal counterpart changed its name to theProgressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 1942 on the insistence of its new leader,John Bracken, whose roots were in the populistProgressive Party.

The Progressive Conservatives took advantage of Liberal infighting to win aminority government inthe 1943 provincial election, reducing the Liberals to third-party status. Drew called another election in1945, only two years into his mandate, to get a majority government. The PCs played upCold War tensions to win a landslide majority, though it emerged several years later that the PC government had set up a secret department of theOntario Provincial Police to spy on the opposition and the media.^[2] The PCs would dominate Ontario politics for the next four decades.

Under Drew and his successor,Leslie Frost, the PCs were a strong champion of rural issues but also invested heavily in the development of civil works throughout the province, including the construction of the 400 series of highways, beginning with the 401 across Toronto. On social issues, Frost's Progressive Conservative government passed anti-discrimination laws such as the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951, the Fair Accommodation Practices Act of 1954 and the Ontario Anti-Discrimination Commission Act of 1958, advocated equal wages for women with the Act to Ensure Fair Remuneration for Female Employees, and grantedFirst Nations people the right to vote in 1955. Frost improved health care access to Ontarians through the passing of the Hospital Services Commission of Ontario Act of 1956 and the launching of the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan program in 1959.^[3][4][5] In 1961,John Robarts became the 17th premier of Ontario. He was one of the most popular premiers in years. Under Robarts's leadership, the party epitomized power, continuing Drew and Frost's policies on health care, education, infrastructure and social issues, introducing theOntario Human Rights Code in 1962. He was an advocate of individual freedoms and promoted the rights of the provinces against what he saw as the centralizing initiatives of the federal government, while also promoting national unity against Quebec separatism. He hosted the 1967 "Confederation of Tomorrow" conference in Toronto in an unsuccessful attempt to achieve an agreement for a new Constitution of Canada.

Robarts opposed Canadian Medicare when it was proposed, but later endorsed it fully, and the party implemented the public health care system that continues to this day. He led the party towards a civil libertarian movement. As a strong believer in the promotion of both official languages, he opened the door to French education in Ontario schools.

In 1971,Bill Davis became party leader and the 18th premier. Anti-Catholicism became an issue again in the1971 election, when the Tories campaigned strenuously against a Liberal proposal to extend funding for Catholicseparate schools untilGrade 13. Davis reversed himself in 1985, and enacted the funding extension as one of his last acts before leaving office.

Davis governed until 1985 with a team of advisers known as the "Big Blue Machine" because of their reputed political and strategic skills. Their stamp on the party was so strong that many refer to the Tories' long rule over Ontario as the "Big Blue Machine era".

During its 43 years of domination, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario was seen as a centrist party, with the Liberals being to its right and the New Democratic Party to its left. However, its base of support remained with socially conservative voters in rural Southern Ontario. Davis largely reconciled these differences and emerged one of the most popular politicians in Ontario's history. Other conservatives in thefederal PC Party accused him of damaging the conservative image in Canada by moving to the left on some issues. Davis continued the rapid expansion of community colleges, universities, and highways across Ontario.

Davis retired in 1985. At aleadership convention, he was succeeded by Industry and Trade MinisterFrank Miller. ABlue Tory, Miller was considerably more conservative than Davis, and shifted the Progressive Conservatives to the right. Soon after taking office, he called anelection in which the PCs were reduced to a minority government, and actually finished behind the Liberals in the popular vote for the first time in 42 years.

Soon afterward, theOntario New Democratic Party (NDP) ofBob Rae reached an agreement withDavid Peterson's Liberals in which the NDP would support a Liberal minority government. Miller was defeated in a no-confidence motion on June 18. Peterson was asked to form a government later in the day, ending the longest period of one-party rule in Canadian provincial history. Miller was replaced as leader byLarry Grossman at a secondleadership convention.

When the Liberal-NDP Accord expired, anelection was held in 1987 in which the Tories were reduced to third place in theLegislative Assembly of Ontario. They only won 16 seats, their worst showing in over half a century. Grossman was personally defeated in his downtown Torontoriding and resigned immediately.Andy Brandt was the party'sinterim leader until aleadership election was held in 1990 in whichMike Harris defeatedDianne Cunningham.

Three months after the election of Harris, and only three years into the, typically, four-year term of the Liberal government,David Peterson called a provincial election, in which the PCs failed to improve their standing, but which resulted in the defeat of the Liberals by Rae's NDP.

In the1995 election, Harris catapulted his party from third place to an election victory, running on asmall government platform called the "Common Sense Revolution". The platform promisedtax cuts (including 30% cuts to provincial personal income tax), and adoptedwedge issues includingdeficit reduction,welfare cuts, the introduction ofworkfare, and the repeal of anemployment equity law Harris characterized as "the quota law."

Public opinion on the Harris government was polarized. The government was criticized on issues such as health care, the environment, education, and social policies. Strikes and protests including a1997 teacher's strike beleaguered its first term. But it won a second majority in the1999 general election, and held generally stable support until Harris's departure as party leader in 2002.

A slide in PC support began in early 2000 according toIpsos-Reid, when the Tories fell behind the Liberals in the public opinion polls for the first time since the 1999 election, with 36% support of those polled, compared to 42% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP. Later in 2000, Liberal support rose to about half of those polled, while PC support remained in the low 30s. This pattern held through to the 2002 leadership campaign, when PC support rose to 37%, while the Liberals retained the support of about half of those polled.

With the resignation of Mike Harris in 2002, the PCs held aleadership election.Ernie Eves, who had been Harris's minister of finance, and who had the backing of almost all PC members of provincial parliament (MPPs), won the campaign, defeating his successor as minister of finance,Jim Flaherty.

Eves was aRed Tory, unlike Harris. He'd tried to blunt some of the edges of the more radical elements of Harris's platform while in Cabinet. His distancing from the Common Sense Revolution continued after he became premier. He killed plans to sell off Hydro One and re-imposed retail price controls on electricity, capping the price at 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, and vowing to keep it capped until at least 2006.

During the summer after Eves's election as leader, the PCs closed the gap in popular support considerably, placing only two percentage points behind the Liberals in two summer public opinion polls. By the autumn of 2002, however, Eves's "honeymoon" with the voters was over, and the party fell back in the polls, hovering in the mid-to-high 30s, while the Liberals scored in the mid-to-high 40s.

Despite his attempt to recast the Tory government as a moderate one, Eves was unable to reverse the slide in the polls the Tories had suffered in the last years of Harris's tenure.

Eves asked Flaherty's campaign chairman, Jaime Watt, to co-manage the PC election campaign, along with the rest of the "Whiz Kids" team that had previously worked for Harris. OnlyTom Long, the central organizer in Harris's campaigns, refused to work for Eves.

The "Whiz Kids" reputation for competence was marred by publicity stunts such as handing down his government's second budget at the headquarters ofMagna International instead of in the provincial legislature. Voter backlash against this break with parliamentary tradition forced the delay of a planned spring election in 2003.

In May 2003, Eves released the party's platform, "The Road Ahead". The document promoted an aggressive hard-right agenda, and was closer in spirit to Harris and Flaherty's agenda than to Eves's own. In releasing this document, Eves reversed his earlier positions on banning teacher's strikes, jailing the homeless, private school tax credits andsame-sex marriage. The platform also called for mortgage interest deductibility.

The PC election campaign was riddled with mistakes and miscues, and Eves appeared uncomfortable trying to sell a platform he had opposed only a year earlier. In contrast, the Liberals had spent the last four years positioning themselves as the government in waiting, and ran on the simple platform of "Choose Change". PC television ads which attacked Liberal leaderDalton McGuinty as "still not up to the job" were received poorly by the voting public, and allowed the Liberal campaign to portray the Tories as needlessly confrontational.

A critical point in the campaign was when a member of the Eves team jokingly referred to McGuinty as an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet", a comment that made the Tories appear desperate to vilify their opponents. In the final days leading up to the vote, Eves was further criticized for saying that McGuinty just says "whatever comes into his pointy little head". On election day, the Tories were routed, falling to 24 seats.

In early 2004, Eves announced his intention to step down as leader. A leadership convention to replace him was called for the fall.

Jim Flaherty was the first to enter the race, campaigning on the same right wing platform as in 2002. He was soon opposed byJohn Tory, a former executive withRogers Cable and aToronto mayoral candidate in 2003 (a position he would ultimatelywin in 2014), sometimes viewed as aRed Tory due to his association to former premier Bill Davis. MPPFrank Klees, the third candidate in the race, was a supporter of the Common Sense Revolution and campaigned for a parallel private health care system.

The2004 leadership election was held on September 18, 2004, electing John Tory as the party's new leader. Tory, who had first worked as an aide to Premier Bill Davis, was elected to the Ontario legislature in a by-election in March, 2005, in the seat that Eves held.^[6]

In polling prior to the2007 general election, the PCs' support rose after the first Liberal budget in 2004. The party was virtually tied with the Liberals, as Tory has experimented with several different orientations. During his first year as leader, Tory attempted to rise above partisan politics, openly contemptuous of partisan moves and pledging to improve decorum in the legislature. In his second year as leader, Tory adopted a more traditional approach to the issues, sharply opposing the Liberal plans on taxes, spending, deficits and cuts. Heading into the election year, Tory put most of his emphasis on criticizing the government's handling of a standoff withMohawk aboriginals inCaledonia in order to portray the government as weak. He also emphasized traditional right-wing issues like taxes, crime and government spending.

During the 2006 PC Policy Convention, Tory introduced his plan for shaping up the PCs' platform for the2007 election campaign. His ideas were stated in what have been called "The White Papers".^[7]

The party experienced a drop in popularity, however, after Tory pledged to provide government funding forfaith-based schools. The proposal, which proved to be unpopular with voters,^[8] contributed largely to the party's loss. The Liberals won a secondmajority government, and the PCs made negligible gains in the legislature (one more seat, but a 3 per cent drop in the popular vote). Tory, who had left hisDufferin–Peel–Wellington–Grey seat to run inDon Valley West, would lose to Liberal incumbentKathleen Wynne.

As a result of theelection loss, the party decided to hold aleadership review vote at its 2008 General Party Meeting in London.^[9] The Ontario PC Party's constitution requires that the party hold a leadership review vote at the first party convention after an election defeat.^[9]

From the election day until the 2008 General Meeting, party members were divided into two "camps": those who supported John Tory's position as party leader and those who opposed his leadership. Several campaigns to oust John Tory as leader of the party, most notably by a party activist group led by former party president Rueben Devlin calledGrassroots PC.^[10][11] John Tory had the public support of the PC legislative caucus, and most notably, support from former premiers and predecessorsErnie Eves andBill Davis.^[12]

The lead-up to the review vote was marked by high emotions on both sides of the debate and allegations of rule breaking. Such allegations were risen when caucus members sent letters on party letterhead seeking support for Tory. The letters signed by Tory MPPs Bob Runciman and Toby Barrett were a clear violation of the rules of the party, as the party in general is supposed to be neutral on the leadership review question.^[13] Tory responded by stating that he and his supporters will reimburse the party for the letters that the caucus members had sent in support of Tory's position as leaders. As a result, the party's president, Blair McCreadie, had stated that the matter is closed.^[13] A supporter of Tory's, PC Youth President Andrew Brander, launched a series of last-minute challenges of delegates on the grounds that they are representing ridings where they neither live nor work.^[14]

Tory received 66.9% support, lower than internal tracking which showed him more comfortably in the 70 per cent range - appeared to come as a shock to Tory.^[12][15] The percentage of support received by Tory was nearly identical to Joe Clark's 1983 support when he was federal PC leader, which resulted in Clark resigning as leader, and is often seen as the benchmark for Canadian party leaders to get to stay on as leader.^[16]

Three hours after the leadership review vote, John Tory announced to the delegates at the Ontario PC's general meeting that he would stay on as leader of the Party.^[17] Tory came under heavy criticism from several party members following this delay, with his opponents signalling that they would continue to call for an end to what they called his 'weak' leadership.^[18] Other party members, such as former Mike Harris's chief of staff Guy Giorno and interim leader of the opposition Bob Runciman, supported John Tory, saying that his opponents should accept the results and move on.^[17][18]

John Tory announced his pending resignation as leader on March 6, 2009; the day following his defeat in a by-election forHaliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock. On June 27, 2009, party members electedTim Hudak as the party's new leader.Christine Elliott,Frank Klees, andRandy Hillier were the unsuccessful candidates.

Hudak led the PCs through two elections. In the2011 provincial election, the McGuinty Liberal government was reduced to aminority. Hudak's Tories were widely expected to win the2014 provincial election but the Liberals, now led byKathleen Wynne, were returned with a majority government largely due to Hudak's campaign pledge to cut 100,000 public service jobs by attrition rather than by layoffs. Hudak resigned in the aftermath. On July 2, 2014,Jim Wilson was chosen by the Progressive Conservative caucus to be itsinterim leader until the2015 leadership election.^[19]

On May 9, 2015, the membership electedPatrick Brown, a federalConservative MP from Barrie, as the leader of the party.Christine Elliott was the unsuccessful candidate withVic Fedeli,Lisa MacLeod, andMonte McNaughton withdrawing prior to the vote.

Since he did not hold a seat in the Legislature, the party requested that MPPGarfield Dunlop resign his seat inSimcoe North so that Brown could run. Brown was elected as MPP for Simcoe North in aby-election held September 3, 2015.^[20]

At the party's 2016 Annual General Meeting (the first since the leadership election) Brown announced that the PCs would take on a more inclusive and compassionate tone, shifting to the political centre by reach out to groups that do not typically support the party includingtrade unions, and pursue "sensible"carbon pricing.^[21] He also unveiled a new logo to represent the commitment to "inclusion, renewal, openness and change".^[22] Brown stated his intention to change the party by moving away from past campaigns where one particular issue often cost them support, such asTim Hudak's proposed public sector job cuts in the2014 election orJohn Tory's proposal to extend public funding to allfaith-based schools in2007.^[21]

At the PC's weekend policy convention on November 25, 2017, their "People's Guarantee" platform was released. Brown's platform was described as centrist on many issues, and included proposals such as opting-in to the federal carbon tax "backstop" (while criticizing the Liberal'scap-and-trade system) and providing child care subsidies. Brown's platform also included more traditional PC platform items relating to cutting taxes and user fees, such as a 12 percent reduction in hydro bills, cutting "middle-class taxes by 22 per cent", and a commitment to balancing the provincial budget.^[23] Brown also attempted to distance himself from socially conservative policies, declaring himself pro-choice, and refusing to discuss abortion and gay marriage issues at the policy convention, stating that he believed the "vast majority" of the party was on board with socially progressive policies.^[24]

Led by theCampaign Life Coalition,^[25] a socially conservativeanti-abortion organization that had supported Brown's leadership bid and disapproved of his move to the centre^[26][27] a breakaway party called "Ontario Alliance" was formed to represent disaffected social conservatives.^[28] Similarly, the Trillium Party of Ontario aimed to represent conservative libertarians who have been left out.^[29][30] In particular, Brown expelled Carleton—Mississippi Mills MPP and former Ontario Land Association president Jack MacLaren out of the party after he made negative disparaging comments about Francophone language rights. MacLaren subsequentlycrossed the floor to become the Trillium Party's first member in the Ontario Legislature.^[31] As well, some conservatives in Northern Ontario who have felt unrepresented by the Tories and alienated by the party leadership have joined the Northern Ontario Party.^[32]

On January 24, 2018, Brown was accused by two women of engaging in sexual misconduct. Brown denied the allegations and initially refused to step down. After pressure from within the party caucus, including calls for his resignation by deputy PC leadersSylvia Jones andSteve Clark,^[33] he resigned as leader in the early hours of January 25, with some aspects of the allegations later proving to be false or unconfirmed.^{[34][35][36][37][38]}

With Brown's resignation occurring less than five months before thenext provincial election, the party executive met on January 25, 2018, to determine whether to have thenext Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election before the provincial election, and if so how it will proceed, or whether to have the interim leader lead the party into the election.^[39]Vic Fedeli,Nipissing MPP and former mayor ofNorth Bay, was chosen asinterim leader by caucus on January 26, 2018.^[40] The Party held a leadership convention onMarch 10, 2018.

Fedeli's first major task as interim leader was to investigate the allegations of questionable spending on lawsuits and unsubstantiated favours to allies during Brown's tenure.^[41] Party presidentRick Dykstra resigned on January 28, 2018.^[42] He indicated that it was time for "someone else to lead us through the hard work". Shortly afterwards,Maclean's magazine revealed allegations of sexual assault against Dykstra, stemming from a 2014 incident when Dykstra was a federal MP.^[43][44] Several other key party and campaign staffers were dismissed or their positions eliminated due to a "reorganization" in the days after Brown's resignation.^[45]

On March 10, 2018, former Toronto city councillorDoug Ford, the brother of the late former mayor of TorontoRob Ford and son of the late former MPPDoug Ford Sr., was elected as leader of the PC Party, narrowly defeating runner-upChristine Elliott on the third ballot with 50.6% of allocated points, although Elliot had more votes. Due to not having a seat in the legislature, Ford chose to haveVic Fedeli remain as leader of the opposition before the 2018 election.

On June 7, 2018, Ford led the PCs to a majority government. The Tories won 76 of 124 seats and 40.5% of the vote.

In the2022 Ontario general election, Ford led the PCs to another victory, winning with an increased majority.^[46]

In early 2025, Ford called for an early snapelection; he led the party to a historic third victory, winning with a slightly decreased majority.

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The Ontario PC Party is a centre-right^[47][48][49]conservative political party. In recent years, the PC Party has repeatedly campaigned on the following policies:

• Allowing private retailers to sellalcohol andcannabis^[50][51][52]
• Streamlining regulations^{[51][53][52][54]}
• Opposing calls to ban licensed firearm ownership^[55][56]

• Addingfinancial literacy to the curriculum^[57][53]
• Supporting sex-education, but allowing parents to opt-out of it^[51][58]
• Reducing the power of teachers' unions^[59][53][52]
• Hiring teachers based onmerit and qualifications, rather than seniority^[51][60]
• Abolishing theOntario College of Trades^[61][53]

• SupportingOntario's universal publicly funded healthcare system^{[62][53][52][63]}
• Hiring more healthcare workers^{[51][62][53][52][64]}
• Allowing privately run healthcare clinics to provide publicly funded healthcare procedures^[65][53][66]

• Pursuingbalanced budgets during times of economic growth^{[51][53][52][67]}
• Opposing the implementation of auniversal basic income and "no strings attached" welfare payments^[68][52]
• Reducingcorporate welfare^[51][53][52]

• Funding the construction of more highways and roads^{[51][52][62][53][69]}
• Funding the construction ofpublic transit^{[51][52][62][53][70]}
• De-politicizing the approval process for housing construction^[71]
• Support the use of hydro electricity and nuclear electricity^[51][60][72]

• Opposing legalization of recreational drugs^[73][74][75]
• Hiring more police officers and opposing thepolice abolition movement^{[55][76][52][77]}
• Pursuing longer prison sentences during prosecutions^[55][76][78]

• Reducing ofincome taxes^{[51][62][53][52][79]}
• Reducing ofbusiness taxes^{[51][52][62][53][80]}
• Reducinggasoline taxes and opposing acarbon tax^[81][62][53]

• Reducing the number of politicians in municipal governments^[82][52][83]

The party was known as the Liberal-Conservative Association of Ontario from 1867 to 1942, and then as the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario from 1942 to present.

	Photo	Leader	Years in Office	Note
1		John Sandfield Macdonald	1867–1871	First Premier of Ontario
2		Matthew Crooks Cameron	1871–1878	Leader of the Opposition
3		William Ralph Meredith	1878–1894	Leader of the Opposition. LaterChief Justice of Ontario (1913–1923).
4		George Frederick Marter	1894–1896	Leader of the Opposition
5		SirJames P. Whitney	1896–1914	Premier of Ontario 1905–1914, Leader of the Opposition 1896–1905
6		SirWilliam Hearst	1914–1919	Premier of Ontario
7		George Howard Ferguson	1919–1930	Premier of Ontario 1923–1930, Leader of the Opposition 1919–1923
8		George Stewart Henry	1930–1936	Premier of Ontario 1930–1934, Leader of the Opposition 1934–1938.
9		William Earl Rowe	1936–1938	Concurrently served as a federal Conservative MP. Henry continued as Leader of the Opposition as Rowe did not have a seat in the legislature. Remained a federal MP until 1963. Served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario 1963–1968.
10		George Drew	1938–1948	Premier of Ontario 1943–1948. Leader of the Opposition 1939–1943. Resigned as Premier to become leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party and federal Leader of the Opposition (1948–1956). Served as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (1957–1964)
11		Thomas Kennedy	1948–1949 (interim)	Premier of Ontario. Also Minister of Agriculture (1930–1934, 1943–1953)
12		Leslie Frost	1949–1961	Premier of Ontario, 1949–1961
13		John Robarts	1961–1971	Premier of Ontario, 1961–1971
14		Bill Davis	1971–1985	Premier of Ontario, 1971–1985
15		Frank Miller	1985	Premier of Ontario, 1985
16		Larry Grossman	1985–1987	Leader of the Opposition
17		Andy Brandt	1987–1990 (interim)	Leader of the third party
18		Mike Harris	1990–2002	Premier of Ontario, 1995–2002
19		Ernie Eves	2002–2004	Premier of Ontario 2002–2003, Leader of the Opposition 2003–2004
20		John Tory	2004–2009	Leader of the Opposition 2005–2007, later Mayor of Toronto (2014–2023)
21		Bob Runciman	2009 (interim)	Leader of the Opposition. Later a Senator (2010–2017)
22		Tim Hudak	2009–2014	Leader of the Opposition
23		Jim Wilson	2014–2015 (interim)	Leader of the Opposition
24		Patrick Brown	2015–2018	Leader of the Opposition. Later Mayor ofBrampton, Ontario (2018–present)
25		Vic Fedeli	2018 (interim)	Leader of the Opposition
26		Doug Ford	2018–present	Premier of Ontario, 2018–present

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Position	Status
1867	John Sandfield Macdonald	80,111	50.3	41 / 82	41	1st	Coalition
1871		59,926	45.9	38 / 82	3	2nd	Opposition
1875	Matthew Crooks Cameron	89,355	46.8	34 / 88	4	2nd	Opposition
1879	William Ralph Meredith	118,513	47.8	29 / 88	5	2nd	Opposition
1883		120,853	46.6	37 / 88	8	2nd	Opposition
1886		148,969	47.0	32 / 90	5	2nd	Opposition
1890		130,289	39.9	34 / 91	2	2nd	Opposition
1894		104,369	27.8	23 / 94	9	2nd	Opposition
1898	James P. Whitney	204,011	47.7	42 / 94	19	2nd	Opposition
1902		215,883	49.7	48 / 98	6	2nd	Opposition
1905		237,612	53.4	69 / 98	21	1st	Majority
1908		246,324	54.7	86 / 106	17	1st	Majority
1911		205,338	55.6	82 / 106	4	1st	Majority
1914		268,548	55.3	84 / 111	1	1st	Majority
1919	William Howard Hearst	403,655	34.9	25 / 111	59	3rd	Third party
1923	George Howard Ferguson	473,819	49.8	75 / 111	50	1st	Majority
1926		640,515	57.6	72 / 112	3	1st	Majority
1929		574,730	58.8	90 / 112	18	1st	Majority
1934	George S. Henry	621,218	39.8	17 / 90	73	2nd	Opposition
1937	William Earl Rowe	619,610	40.0	23 / 90	6	2nd	Opposition
1943	George Drew	469,672	35.7	38 / 90	15	1st	Minority
1945		781,345	44.3	66 / 90	28	1st	Majority
1948		725,799	41.5	53 / 90	13	1st	Majority
1951	Leslie Frost	860,939	48.5	79 / 90	26	1st	Majority
1955		846,592	48.5	83 / 98	4	1st	Majority
1959		868,815	46.3	71 / 98	12	1st	Majority
1963	John Robarts	1,052,740	48.9	77 / 108	6	1st	Majority
1967		1,018,755	42.3	69 / 117	8	1st	Majority
1971	Bill Davis	1,465,313	44.5	78 / 117	9	1st	Majority
1975		1,192,592	36.1	51 / 125	27	1st	Minority
1977		1,322,723	39.7	58 / 125	7	1st	Minority
1981		1,412,488	44.4	70 / 125	12	1st	Majority
1985	Frank Miller	1,343,044	37.0	52 / 125	18	1st	Minority
							Opposition[a]
1987	Larry Grossman	931,473	24.7	16 / 130	36	3rd	Third Party
1990	Mike Harris	944,564	23.5	20 / 130	4	3rd	Third Party
1995		1,870,110	44.8	82 / 130	62	1st	Majority
1999		1,978,059	45.1	59 / 103	23	1st	Majority
2003	Ernie Eves	1,559,181	34.7	24 / 103	35	2nd	Opposition
2007	John Tory	1,398,857	31.6	26 / 107	2	2nd	Opposition
2011	Tim Hudak	1,527,959	35.4	37 / 107	11	2nd	Opposition
2014		1,506,267	31.2	28 / 107	9	2nd	Opposition
2018	Doug Ford	2,324,742	40.5	76 / 124	48	1st	Majority
2022		1,912,057	40.8	83 / 124	7	1st	Majority
2025		2,158,452	43.0	80 / 124	3	1st	Majority

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