Bill Davis, R.I.P.

Former Ontario Premier Bill Davis passed away today of natural causes at the age of 92.

Davis was the second longest serving Premier in the province's history with only Oliver Mowat who served nearly a quarter century from 1872 to 1896 having a longer tenure in office.

In my early years, Davis was as dominating a Canadian political figure as Pierre Trudeau albeit less charismatic. Yet there were remarkable similarities between the two men. Both Davis and Trudeau extended their respective parties dynasties by first becoming effective cabinet ministers. While Trudeau earned the Liberal Party leadership on the strength of his work as Minister of Justice on the federal level under Lester Pearson, Davis earned his gravitas en route to the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party as Minister of Education under John Robarts. Davis did this by establishing community colleges, adding two new universities (Brock and Trent), establishing the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) as well as the Ontario Educational Communications Authority which would later become TVOntario.

In his 14 years as Premier from 1971 to 1985, Davis governed from the center. To some degree this was by necessity as the 1975 and 1977 provincial elections returned him to office with minority governments. Nevertheless, Davis was no right-wing ideologue. He sought to bring about peace, order and good government and largely succeeded. Davis was also a close ally of Trudeau on the question of patriating the Constitution and bringing about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

One of the rare occasions when Davis' political instincts abandoned him was when he reversed himself on full public funding for Catholic schools. This would alienate his Tory base which was largely Protestant. Though by this time, Davis had already announced his retirement and it would be left to his successor Frank Miller to deal with the fallout of that decision. Indeed, the 1985 Ontario election would result in a Liberal-NDP accord and the fall of the Tories after 42 years in office.

My family supported the NDP during his years in office. Naturally there was corruption and mistakes. But given what has followed under succeeding Liberal, NDP and Tory governments, Bill Davis' years in office look very, very good. R.I.P.