Ontario general election, 1995

The Ontario general election of 1995 was held on June 8, 1995, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada.

The governing Ontario New Democratic Party, led by Premier Bob Rae, was defeated by voters, who were angry at the mistakes made by the inexperienced NDP, and frustrated by rising taxes and unemployment. Liberal Party, led by Lyn McLeod had been leading in the polls, but was denied victory by voters who were uncomfortable about McLeod's "flip-flopping" on certain issues, including recognition of same-sex civil unions. The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Mike Harris, found success with its "Common Sense Revolution" campaign to cut personal income taxes, social assistance (welfare) rates, and government spending dramatically. Voters gave the Tories a large majority.

One Independent candidate was elected: Peter North in Erie riding. North had been elected in 1990 as a New Democrat, but left the NDP and declared his intention to run as a Progressive Conservative. The PC Party did not accept him as a candidate, however, and he ran and won as an independent.

The writs for the election were dropped on April 28, 1995.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	1990	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Progressive Conservatives/row	Progressive Conservative	Mike Harris	125	20	82	+310%	1,870,110	44.8%	+21.3% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Liberal/row	Liberal	Lyn McLeod	125	36	30	-16.7%	1,291,326	31.1%	-1.3% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/NDP/row	New Democratic	Bob Rae	125	74	17	-77.0%	854,163	20.6%	-17.0% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Family Coalition/row	Family Coalition	Donald Pennell	55	-	-	-	61,657	1.5%	-0.1% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Natural Law/row	Natural Law	Ron Parker	68	-	-	-	18,326	0.4%	+0.4% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Green/row	Green	Frank de Jong	37	-	-	-	14,108	0.4%	-0.3% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Libertarian/row	Libertarian	John Shadbolt	18	-	-	-	6,085	0.2%	-0.4% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Freedom/row	Freedom	Jack Plant	11	-	-	-	4,532	0.1%	-0.1% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/CoR/row	Confederation of Regions		6	-	-	-	3,971	0.1%	-1.8% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Communist/row	Communist	Darrell Rankin	5	-	-	-	1,015	0.02%	-0.08% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Independents/row	Independent		61	-	1	-	33,077	0.8%	+0.5%
Total			636	130	130	-	4,158,370	100%	-

Notes:

At least five unregistered parties fielded candidates in this election.

The Reform Association of Ontario ran a number of candidates around London and the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Their leader was Kimble Ainslie.

John Steele campaigned as a candidate of the Communist League.

The Ontario Renewal Party ran a number of candidates under the leadership of Diane Johnston. This was the Marxist-Leninist party under a different name.

Amani Oakley and Joe Flexer ran as "Independent Labour" candidates in Toronto with the support of dissident or former members of the Ontario New Democratic Party and with the support of OPSEU in the case of Oakley and the Canadian Auto Workers in the case of Flexer [1] (http://www.bolshevik.org/Leaflets/Vote%20Flexer.html).

John Turmel's Abolitionist Party ran at least two candidates.

Candidates from the aforementioned parties appeared on the ballot as independents. It is possible that some candidates listed below as independents actually belonged to these or other parties.