Everything about Chris Stockwell totally explained
Chris Stockwell (born
March 9,
1957 in
London,
Ontario) was a
politician in Ontario,
Canada. He was a
Progressive Conservative member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from
1990 to
2003, and served as a
cabinet minister in the governments of
Mike Harris and
Ernie Eves. Before entering provincial politics, he'd been a member of
Toronto city council. Stockwell's father,
Bill Stockwell, was also a Progressive Conservative politician.
Stockwell was elected as a city of
Etobicoke controller in
1982, and held the position until his election to the
Metropolitan Toronto council in November
1988. He represented Lakeshore-Queensway, in the Etobicoke region, and also served as chair of the Metro O’Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts during this period.
Stockwell was elected to the Ontario provincial legislature in the
1990 provincial election, defeating incumbent
Liberal Linda LeBourdais by about 4,000 votes in
Etobicoke West. Almost immediately after the election, he accepted a generous payout from city council in lieu of time served. The
New Democratic Party won the election, and Stockwell sat on the opposition benches for the next five years.
The Tories won a significant majority in the
provincial election of 1995, and Stockwell was easily elected in his own riding. Despite his experience, he wasn't appointed to
cabinet by the new
Premier,
Mike Harris. He soon developed a reputation as a maverick, representing centrist conservative views in a party dominated by right-wingers.
Stockwell was elected
Speaker of the Assembly on
October 3,
1996, after
Al McLean was forced to resign from the position. He wasn't Mike Harris's preferred choice for the position (the Premier supported
Margaret Marland) but won with support from members in all three parties. Stockwell won a reputation for independence in the Speaker's chair, and wasn't afraid to criticize members of his own party.
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. He ruled against the government when they moved that the legislature didn't need to vote on each amendment, but in their favor when they suggested that the identical text didn't need to be read aloud each time.
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, despite his party's losses in other Toronto ridings. On
June 17,
1999, he was appointed to cabinet as
Minister of Labour.
Despite Stockwell's reputation as a
Red Tory, 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. In addition to the Labour portfolio, Stockwell also served as Commissioner of the Board of Internal Economy for a few months in
2001.
Stockwell was a candidate to succeed Mike Harris in the
2002 PC leadership campaign. During this campaign, he claimed that the right-wing initiatives of Harris's "
Common Sense Revolution" were necessary in
1995, but no longer made sense in
2003. He won little support from party insiders, and placed last with 4% of the vote. He supported
Ernie Eves, the winning candidate, on the second ballot.
On
April 15,
2002, Eves appointed Stockwell as Government House Leader and
Minister of Environment and Energy. The Energy and Environment portfolios were broken up on
August 22,
2002, with Stockwell keeping
Energy.
On
June 17,
2003, he resigned from cabinet in the wake of a controversy concerning the misuse of expenses. An inquiry under Justice Osborne found that Stockwell had breached the
Members Integrity Act with expenses claimed on a trip to Europe. His riding association had paid for his family to accompany him, using tax-deductible political donations; it was also alleged that Stockwell charged $10,000 to
Ontario Power Generation as part of the trip. Previously, he'd claimed $3000 in bar bills for himself and his staff as government expenses.
On
July 25,
2003, Stockwell announced that he wouldn't run in the
2003 election.
Stockwell was known for his oratorical skills and was arguably the best speaker on the government benches. Along with Liberal
George Smitherman, he was perhaps the most energetic speaker in the legislature from
1999 to
2003. He is currently employed as a political consultant.
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