Robert William "Bob" Runciman OOnt (born August 10, 1942)[1] is a Canadian politician and former provincial Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature.
[9] During this period, he championed privately owned prisons, and was criticized on one occasion for revealing the name of a young offender in the legislature.
Runciman supported Ernie Eves's successful bid to succeed Harris as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 2002.
After confirming that he was referring to members of the black community, he went on to say that "some folks here appear to have, in my view, a vested interest in seeing this kind of tension continue to exist.
Tory won the contest, and, not having a seat in the legislature, named Runciman to the position of interim Leader of the Opposition in September 2004.
Runciman resumed the position of opposition leader following the 2007 provincial election in which John Tory failed to win a seat in the Legislature, losing to Liberal Minister Kathleen Wynne.
Runciman officially released his memoirs of his 45-year career at an event at the Royal Brock Centre in Brockville, Ontario on June 30, 2023, two days after launching his website.
He also shares stories including hiding on the floor of the Ontario Legislature to avoid votes, his supportive relationship with father, Publisher and Musician Sandy Runciman, and his marriage to Jeannette Runciman (née Bax), who died in a tragic accident in 2020, and who has an island named for her in the Thousand Islands region of Eastern Ontario.