Ernest Larry Eves OOnt KC[1] (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003.
He remained in opposition until 1995, when the Tories returned to power under Mike Harris, who appointed Eves as his Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance.
He defeated Liberal candidate Richard Thomas by only six votes, leading to the nickname "Landslide Ernie", and went on to keep the seat for twenty years.
He left cabinet on the defeat of the Miller ministry in the legislature, and served as an opposition Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) until the Progressive Conservatives returned to power in 1995.
In 1995, after being elected on the "Common Sense Revolution", a program of tax cuts and government cutbacks, Eves was appointed Harris' Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier.
There have also been reports that Eves was conflicted about the risks of adding $22 billion to the provincial debt by cutting taxes before balancing the budget.
He staved off a determined run by his successor at Finance, Jim Flaherty, who pushed a hard-right agenda to appeal to the party's grassroots.
Flaherty's campaign featured scathing attacks on Eves, calling him a "serial waffler" and a "pale, pink imitation of Dalton McGuinty".
Cost over-runs at nuclear reactors and a very hot summer combined with problems in market regulation to drive hydro prices up significantly (particularly in northern Ontario).
The government was forced to cancel the privatization and capped hydro rates below cost, billing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In late 2002, cabinet minister Cam Jackson was forced to resign when the Liberals alleged he had spent more than $100,000 on meals and alcohol in expensive restaurants and in four star Toronto hotels.
Eves was also caught unaware when the Liberals broke that Mike Harris had arranged a secret tax break for professional sports teams on his last day in office.
In December 2002, a coroner's inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers recommended numerous changes to the government's welfare legislation, which Community and Social Services Minister, Brenda Elliott, dismissed as unnecessary tinkering with a system that "was working effectively".
They convinced the Premier to have the Minister of Finance, Janet Ecker, present the government's March 2003 budget at a televised press conference at the headquarters of auto parts maker Magna International, instead of in the legislature.
The "Magna Budget" resulted in accusations that the government was trying to avoid the scrutiny of the legislature and was flouting centuries of parliamentary tradition in favour of a PR stunt.
[8][9] Soon after the budget, Energy Minister Chris Stockwell ran into trouble when he allowed a company he regulated to pay for a family trip to Europe.
After several weeks of front-page news on the scandal and an unfavourable ruling from the province's Integrity Commissioner, Eves forced Stockwell to resign on 17 June.
During that time, Eves made daily television appearances announcing developments in the situation, and appealing to the public to conserve as much electricity as possible during the period.
Yushchenko was welcomed by "the members of the Canadian political elite in Toronto, headed by Premier of Ontario Ernie Eves", who was described as a leading Canadian of Ukrainian heritage, as well as federal cabinet minister Sheila Copps, Bishop Augustine Eugene Hornyak, Senator A. Raynell Andreychuk and City Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby.
While exposure from the blackout had boosted the PCs into a short-lived tie with Dalton McGuinty's Liberals in the polls, and despite the reputation of the Ontario Tories for increasing their support base in mid-campaign, Eves had trouble convincing voters that his party deserved to stay in office.
When a PC campaign staffer distributed a press release referring to McGuinty as an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet", many voters were turned off by the attack.
McGuinty appeared ready for the office of Premier and tapped into voter frustration over deteriorating public services and the needless conflict of the Harris/Eves governments.