John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian businessman, political activist, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, former Member of Provincial Parliament and broadcaster.

Tory is considered by some to be a Red Tory, and holds socially liberal views on a number of issues including same-sex marriage.

In the 2007 provincial election, Tory was defeated in the riding of Don Valley West by Liberal incumbent Kathleen Wynne. He subsequently received the support of 66.9% of attendees at a leadership review meeting following the election and stayed on as party leader.^[1] Tory's political future was thrown into doubt when, on March 5, 2009, he failed in his attempt to re-enter the legislature, losing a provincial by-election to Liberal Rick Johnson in the riding of Haliburton?Kawartha Lakes?Brock. Tory announced his resignation as party leader the next day and will be replaced at the 2009 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership election.^[2]

Background

Tory is the son of John A. Tory, president of Thomson Investments Limited and a director of Rogers Communications. He has been married to Barbara Hackett since 1978. From 1972 to 1979, Tory was hired by family friend Ted Rogers as a journalist for Rogers Broadcasting's Toronto radio stations CFTR and CHFI.

Before enrolling in university, he attended the University of Toronto Schools, a private high school affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Tory received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Trinity College, University of Toronto in 1975. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1978 from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1980.

From 1980 to 1981, and later from 1986 to 1995, Tory held various positions at his father's Toronto law firm Tory, Tory, DesLauriers & Binnington, including partner, managing partner, and member of the Executive Committee.

From 1981 to 1985, Tory served in the Office of the Premier of Ontario, Bill Davis as Principal Secretary to the Premier and Associate Secretary of the Cabinet. In 1985, Davis retired as Premier. Tory joined the Office of the Canadian Special Envoy on Acid Rain, as Special Advisor to the Special Envoy. The Special Envoy had been appointed by the federal government of Brian Mulroney to review matters of air quality with a United States counterpart. Tory supported Dianne Cunningham's bid to lead the provincial Progressive Conservative Party in 1990 (Toronto Star, 3 May 1990).

Tory later served as Tour Director and Campaign Chairman to then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and managed the 1993 federal election campaign of Mulroney's successor, Kim Campbell. Tory was criticized for approving a 1993 election ad that mocked Liberal Party leader Jean Chrétien's facial deformity (although the Conservatives denied that was the ad's intention). The Conservatives suffered the most lopsided defeat for a governing party at the federal level in Canadian history, losing half their vote from 1988 and all but two of their 151 seats.

From 1995 to 1999, he returned to Rogers Communications Inc., but this time as president and CEO of Rogers Media^[3] which had become one of Canada's largest publishing and broadcasting companies. Rogers has interests in radio and television stations, specialty television channels, consumer magazines, trade magazines and, at the time, the Toronto Sun and the Sun newspaper chain. In 1999, he became president and CEO of Rogers subsidiary Rogers Cable,^[3] Canada's largest cable television company and a leading video rental chain and cable Internet provider. He led it through a period of transition from a monopoly environment to an open marketplace, overseeing a significant increase in operating income. Tory stepped down after Ted Rogers announced that he would stay on as President and CEO of parent company Rogers Communications.

Tory also served as commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1996 to 2000.^[3]

Tory continued to have an interest in being a broadcaster throughout his life and, as a Rogers executive, hosted a public affairs program on Rogers Cable's community access channel for many years.

Toronto mayoral election campaign, 2003

After six years as a key backer of retiring Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, Tory ran in the November 2003 election for Mayor of Toronto. He finished in second place, behind councillor David Miller and ahead of former mayor Barbara Hall, former councillor and Member of Parliament John Nunziata, and former councillor and budget chief Tom Jakobek.

Tory and Miller both entered the race with limited name recognition and support, but each quickly claimed a core base -- Miller among progressives and Tory among more conservative voters. Meanwhile, Hall's initially commanding lead slowly dissipated over the course of the campaign, and the campaigns of both Nunziata and Jakobek were sidelined by controversies.

Tory's campaign came under fire when it was accused by opponent Nunziata of attempting to bribe him into pulling out of the race by offering the Deputy Mayor's position. At first, Nunziata did not reveal who attempted to bribe him but several media sources speculated that it was Tory's campaign. Besides denying these allegations, Tory also made the pledge to drop out from the race if a police investigation found out that any member of his team was charged with wrongdoing. When Tory was cleared of wrongdoing, Nunziata was in turn accused of mischief for making an unsubstantiated smear claim and sunk further in polls.

Tory also accepted an endorsement from the Toronto Police Association.

Tory held the traditional suburban conservative vote that had helped to elect Mel Lastman in the 1997 mayor's campaign, but lost the overall vote to Miller in a close race. After the election, Tory helped Miller and Hall raise funds to repay their campaign debts.

Election results as a mayoral candidate

Leader of the Ontario PC Party

Current Ontario PC Party logo

Tory's opponents for the leadership post were former Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Oak Ridges MPP Frank Klees, both from the right-wing faction of the party. Tory positioned himself as a centrist candidate, and defeated Flaherty 54% to 46% on the second ballot. When Flaherty later left provincial politics to seek a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, Tory endorsed his former rival in the 2006 election; Flaherty was successfully elected and was appointed Finance Minister. Tory also campaigned prominently with Flaherty's wife Christine Elliott in the provincial by-election held March 30, enabling her to win the seat formerly held by her husband.

Tory told the media in November 2004 that he would seek election to the legislature in time for the spring 2005 legislative session. On December 7, 2004, the Ontario Liberal Party announced that it would run a candidate against Tory in a by-election. This caused some controversy as the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada have historically allowed major party leaders who do not have a parliamentary seat to enter the legislature unopposed, though this has been broken in recent years and the NDP have never followed such an unwritten rule.

On January 31, 2005, after much public speculation and some delay, Ernie Eves resigned his seat and cleared the way for Tory to run in Dufferin?Peel?Wellington?Grey, the safest Conservative seat in the province. As a "parachute candidate", Tory faced some criticism about his commitment to the riding. Nevertheless, he easily won the March 17, 2005 by-election with 56% of the vote. Former Premier Davis appeared for Tory's first session in the legislature as Progressive Conservative leader.

2007 Ontario general election

In the 2007 general election, Tory ran in the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, the area where he grew up, raised his family and lived most of his life.

Tory released his platform on June 9, 2007. The platform, A Plan for a Better Ontario, commits a PC government to eliminate the health care tax introduced by the previous government, put scrubbers on coal-fired plants,^[4] address Ontario?s doctor shortage,^[5] allow new private health care partnerships provided services are paid by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP),^[6] impose more penalties on illegal land occupations in response to the Caledonia land dispute,^[7] fast-track the building of nuclear power plants,^[8] and invest the gas tax in public transit and roads.^[9] A costing of the platform released in August estimates the PC promises will cost an additional $14 billion over four years.^[10]

The PC campaign was formally launched on September 3.^[11] Most of the campaign was dominated by discussion of his plan to extend public funding to Ontario?s faith-based schools.^[12] Earlier in the year, indications were that the party would have been a strong contender to win the election, but the school funding promise resulted in the Liberals regaining the lead in popular support for the duration of the campaign.^[13] Later in the campaign, in the face of heavy opposition, Tory promised a free vote on the issue.^[14]

With the beginning of the official campaign period on September 10, the PC campaign made clear its intention to make the previous government?s record a key issue. In particular, Tory focused on the Liberals' 2003 election and 2004 pre-budget promise not to raise taxes and their subsequent imposition of a health care tax.^[15]

On election night, Tory was defeated in Don Valley West by the incumbent MPP, Ontario Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.^[16] Although Tory was defeated in both his riding of Don Valley West and the race for the premiership, he said that he would stay on as leader unless the party wanted him to resign.^[13][16]

Leading from outside the legislature

As a result of the election loss, the party decided to hold a leadership review vote at its 2008 general party meeting in London.^[17] Tory received 66.9 percent support, lower than internal tracking which showed him in the more comfortable 70 percent range. Three hours after the leadership review vote, Tory announced to the delegates that he would be staying on as leader.^[18] He came under heavy criticism from several party members following this delay, with his opponents signalling that they will continue to call for an end to what they called his 'weak' leadership.^[19] Other party members supported Tory, saying that his opponents should accept the results and move on.^[18][19]

Throughout 2008, Tory's leadership of the party was perceived to be tenuous, as he faced widespread criticism for his seeming failure to convince a sitting MPP to resign in order to open a seat for him. Most notably, Bill Murdoch called for Tory to resign as party leader in September, resulting in his suspension from the party caucus on September 12.^[20] Six days later, Murdoch was permanently expelled from the party caucus. In December 2008, media pundits speculated that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would appoint Progressive Conservative MPP Bob Runciman to the Senate to create a vacancy for Tory, but Harper did not do so.

On January 9, 2009, Progressive Conservative MPP Laurie Scott announced her resignation from the legislature, allowing Tory to run in the resulting by-election in Haliburton?Kawartha Lakes?Brock. In exchange for agreeing to resign, Scott will serve as chair of the party's election preparedness committee until the 2011 election.^[21] On March 5, Tory was defeated in his bid to re-gain a seat in the Ontario legislature, losing to Liberal Rick Johnson.^[22] Tory called a press conference for the next day and announced his intention to resign as soon as his successor is chosen. On March 20 he was succeeded by Bob Runciman on an interim basis. On June 27, 2009, Tim Hudak was elected Tory's permanent successor.

Post-political career

Several weeks following the end of his political career Tory announced that he was returning to his first love, broadcasting, to host a Sunday evening phone-in show on Toronto talk radio station CFRB. The John Tory Show will be simulcast on CHAM in Hamilton and CKTB in St. Catharines.^[23] He is also looking for opportunities in business, law or the non-profit sector.^[24]

Election results

|- |Rick Johnson |align="right"|15,482 |align="right"|43.73 |align="right"| |- |John Tory |align="right"|14,576 |align="right"|41.17 |align="right"| |- |Mike Schreiner |align="right"|2,352 |align="right"|6.64 |align="right"| |- |Lyn Edwards |align="right"|2,117 |align="right"|5.98 |align="right"| |- |Jason Taylor |align="right"|320 |align="right"|0.90 |align="right"| |- |Jake Pothaar |align="right"|258 |align="right"|0.73 |align="right"| |- |Bill Denby |align="right"|140 |align="right"|0.40 |align="right"| |- |John C. Turmel |align="right"|92 |align="right"|0.26 |align="right"| |- |Paolo Fabrizio |align="right"|71 |align="right"|0.20 |align="right"| |- |}

|- |Kathleen Wynne |align="right"|23,059 |align="right"|50.4 |align="right"| - |- |John Tory |align="right"|18,136 |align="right"|39.7 |align="right"| - |- |Adrian Walker |align="right"|2,202 |align="right"|4.8 |align="right"| - |- |Mike Kenny |align="right"|2,135 |align="right"|4.7 |align="right"| - |- |Daniel Kidd |align="right"|183 |align="right"|0.4 |align="right"| - |- |}

|John Tory |15,610 |56.3 |- |Bob Duncanson |4,625 |16.7 |- |Lynda McDougall |3,881 |14.0 |- |Frank de Jong |2,767 |10.0 |- |Paul Micelli |479 |1.7 |- |William Cook |163 |0.6 |- |Philip Bender |135 |0.5 |- |John C. Turmel |85 |0.3 |-

References

External links

• 2007 PC Party election campaign website
• Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario website
• Legislative Assembly of Ontario profile
• Law Society of Upper Canada Record

fr:John Tory

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