Agents of change
ROBERT COLLISON In his new book on Ontario’s modern-day premiers, TVO’s political inquisitor-inchief, Steve Paikin, recalls asking Bill Davis if his highly lucrative after-politics day job as a Bay Street lawyer was the best gig he’d ever had. To which Mr. Davis replied, “Steven, this job of being a corporate lawyer, on its most fascinating day, can’t touch being premier of Ontario on its dullest.” If the transcripts of Paikin’s interviews with Ontario’s first ministers were to be believed, all of Davis’s successors would likely agree.
Supposedly, that observation by Ontario’s 18th premier is the inspiration behind Paikin and the Premiers so, first off, a shout out to Bill Davis for his inspired apercu, because the book it inspired should be required reading for anyone interested in this province’s modern political history. One of the hoariest of clichés is that “journalism is the first draft of history,” but it’s such a storied cliché because it’s true as this book so deftly evidences.
As the host of TVO’s flagship public affairs show, The Agenda, Paikin has been grilling Ontario’s leaders for over two decades and although he’s not shy about asking the tough questions, it is clear from this book that he’s an insider with Queen’s Park’s apparatchiks, which has its advantages: they clearly like and trust him even when on occasion the repartee between them gets a bit testy. To wit, this sniping between Paikin and Bob Rae on a completely inconsequential matter:
Rae: “I am going to have a drink with [former Saskatchewan premier] Romanow tonight, so maybe I’ll find out. Paikin: “Is he in town?” Rae: “It’s hard to have a drink with somebody who’s not in town.”
Paikin: “I figured you were leaving here and hopping on a plane to Saskatoon. Sorry.”
For the most part, however, Paikin’s relationship with Ontario’s High and Mighty is exceedingly cordial and, in the case of Bill Davis, I suspect he worships the man.
In his book’s Epilogue, Paikin quotes former Canadian prime minister John Turner saying “the people are never wrong,” i.e., the decision the public makes on election day are prima facie correct and inviolable.
And for the most part, Paikin clearly believes the people of Ontario have made the right decisions about their leadership over the last five decades, electing men who were, more or less, the right guys for the times.
Casting a gimlet eye over Ontario’s premiers, Paikin has also come to, I think, a rather astute conclusion: all of them are men, and now a woman, characterized by their “authenticity.”
But what aside from their personal qualities is the source of that authenticity. And likely the answer to that question is that most of Ontario’s modern leaders arrived in office as agents of change, which also means they are people with convictions — and of conviction.
David Peterson ended over four decades of Big Blue Machine rule. A sea change. Bob Rae oversaw the first socialist government in the province’s history. A sea change. Mike Harris engineered a tilt to the far right in a province historically noted for straddling the political centre. A sea change. And Dalton McGuinty abruptly reversed course back to the centre left. A sea change.
Perhaps the man who changed Ontario the most was the one who superficially seemed the least revolutionary, Bill Davis. When a journalist once asked him why he ran such a bland government, Davis replied, “Because bland works.” But Davis was being ever so slightly disingenuous. Governing in prosperous times, he ran an exceedingly activist government that quite simply created the foundations of modern-day Ontario. A sea change.
After finishing Paikin and the Premiers, I believe Ontario electors can give themselves a pat on the back. Job well done. But, then again, the people are never wrong.
Robert Collison is a Toronto-based writer and
editor.