Chris Stockwell

He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2003, and served as Speaker of the legislature and cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.

[2] Stockwell played a key role in the anti-megacity filibuster of 1997, where the Opposition parties proposed thousands of amendments identical except for a few words.

[citation needed] In the provincial election of 1999, Stockwell's personal popularity was such that he was able to win an easy re-election in the redistributed riding of Etobicoke Centre after defeating fellow MPP Doug Ford, Sr. for then Progressive Conservative nomination.

[6] Despite Stockwell's reputation as a Red Tory[citation needed], he implemented a number of right-wing policy directives as Labour Minister.

He was largely credited with shepherding through the legislature a bill to increase the maximum work-week to 60 hours, and also promoted the Harris government's "Workplace Democracy Act", which made union organization more difficult.

[citation needed] On April 15, 2002, Eves appointed Stockwell as Government House Leader and Minister of Environment and Energy.

[8] All expenses were referred to the provincial Integrity Commissioner who at that time was the Honourable Coulter A. Osbourne, a former Ontario Supreme Court judge.

On June 3, 2004, covering the period April 3, 2003 to March 31, 2004, the Commissioner again stated: "I am pleased to report that all requests for reimbursements were complied with and all expense claims reviewed were subsequently approved.