Frank Miller (Canadian politician)

Frank Stuart Miller OOnt (May 14, 1927 – July 21, 2000) was a Canadian politician who served as the 19th premier of Ontario for four months in 1985.

When Davis announced his pending resignation in 1985, Miller vied for the leadership of the party and won over a slate of three other candidates.

He attended Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto, and then McGill University in Montreal where he received a degree in engineering.

[7] He planned to close a number of small hospitals and consolidate urban services after the 1975 election, but withdrew in the face of cabinet opposition.

Miller, on the other hand, was more typical of the party's base of social conservatives from Ontario's rural areas.

[11] Miller's Progressive Conservatives had a significant lead in the polls of around 55% (compared to the two opposition parties, in the low to mid 20s) when he called an election for May 1985, but his campaign was considered disastrous.

After several weeks of negotiations with both parties, the NDP signed an agreement with Peterson to support a Liberal minority government.

As a result of the Liberal-NDP accord, Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird asked Peterson to form a government.

Miller formally resigned as Premier on June 26, 1985; ending 42 years of Progressive Conservative rule over Ontario.

The Tories did not return to power in Ontario until the 1995 election, when Mike Harris, who Miller had brought to his cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources, became premier.

His son, Norm Miller, entered provincial politics in 2001, winning a by-election in the riding of Parry Sound—Muskoka after Ernie Eves resigned the seat.