The 42nd Parliament of Ontario was the provincial legislature of the province of Ontario, Canada that was in office from 2018 to 2022. Its membership was initially determined by the Ontario general election held on June 7, 2018. The members held office until the parliament was dissolved on May 3, 2022, in advance of the 2022 Ontario general election. The 42nd Parliament sat for two sessions.
The Progressive Conservative Party led by Premier Doug Ford won a majority mandate from the 2018 election, and comfortably commanded the confidence of the parliament for its entire duration. The Official Opposition, and the only other recognized party, was the Ontario New Democratic Party led by Andrea Horwath. The Ontario Liberal Party and Green Party of Ontario also elected members, but neither elected enough members for official party status. Two additional parties, the New Blue Party of Ontario and the Ontario Party, gained representation through changes of party affiliation during this parliament, but did not reach the threshold for official party status.
The 42nd Parliament of Ontario at in two session. The first session was convened on July 11, 2018, and was in session until Parliament was prorogued on September 12, 2021. A second session session was convened on October 4, 2021, and lasted until the fixed-date dissolution of this parliament on May 3, 2022.
Ted Arnott, MPP for Wellington—Halton Hills and one of the three co-dean of the legislature having been a member of the legislature since 1990, was the Speaker of this parliament.
Party standing
The members of this parliament were elected in the general election held on June 7, 2018. The house expanded substantially, added 17 seated to its composition. The additional seat primary came from the area surrounding Toronto, which gained a whopping 8 seats, all other regions, including Toronto, saw a reduction of seat share, even if the number of seats increased. The election saw the historic defeat of the Liberal Party, returning 76 Progressive Conservative, 40 NDP, 7 Liberal, and 1 Green member. This allowed the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) to form a majority government with its leader Doug Ford, himself a rookie MPP, becoming Premier and the NDP forming the Official Opposition.
Premier Ford is only the second premier, after United Farmers Premier Ernest Drury who became premier ninety-nine years earlier, to be invited to form a government without having previously served in the legislature. Just like Drury, Ford's father was a former member of the legislature. Unlike Drury, however, Ford was backed by a caucus with plenty of veterans, including three members with previous cabinet experience and four members who like him had fathers who were former members of the legislature. The Ford ministry was sworn in by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell on June 29, 2018.
Andrea Horwath was the third Ontario NDP leader to serve as leader of the opposition, after Stephen Lewis (1975–77) and Bob Rae (1987–90). Its forty-member caucus was the second largest ever, second only to the government caucus that supported the Rae ministry between 1990 and 1995, in which its house leader Gilles Bisson served.
It was the first time in the province's history for the Liberals to have insufficient seats to have its caucus recognized in the legislature. While all but one of its seven members came with previous cabinet experience, only one member, Michael Gravelle, have previously sat on the opposition bench. Its caucus would lose three of its seven members midterm, but not the former premier. While former Premier Kathleen Wynne resigned as party leader prior to election day, she served out the entire team of the parliament and acted as the party's house leader under interim leader John Fraser.
The Green Party with only one member was also not recognized in the 42nd Parliament.
Party standings Affiliation Leader Status Progressive Conservative Doug Ford Government27767067 Ontario NDPAndrea Horwath Official Opposition18404038 Liberal John FraserSteven Del Duca Unrecognized55777 Green Mike SchreinerUnrecognized –111 New Blue Jim Karahaliosn/a – –1 1 Ontario Party Derek Sloann/a–––1 Ind. 3 –46Sitting members 103124123124 Vacant4–13 Government Majority7281713
Reflecting the province's diversity Of the 124 members elected in the 2018 election, forty-nine (40%) were women, a record high. At least thirty members (24%) were racialized person or of indigenous background, and at least six were identified as Franco-Ontarians. MPPWomenracializedFranco-OntarianAffiliation##%#%#% Progressive Conservative 7661.3 2551.032.9 1756.722.4 116.6 1.3 Ontario NDP 4032.3 2040.850.0 1136.727.5 350.0 7.5 Liberal 7 5.6 4 8.157.1 2 6.728.6 233.328.6 Green1 0.80——0——0——Total1244930 6 # # # # Cabinet - June 2018 2127.6 733.328.0 14.85.9 0—— Cabinet - June 2019 2838.4 932.137.5 27.111.8 0—— Cabinet - June 2021 2940.8 1034.543.5 620.735.3 0——
Key events
New Progressive Conservative ministry
PC leader was invited to form a new ministry, and assembled a 21-member Cabinet which was sworn in by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell on June 29. The cabinet featured Ford as Premier and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, two of his recent leadership rivals, Christine Elliott as Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and Caroline Mulroney as Attorney General, former interim party leaders Vic Fedeli and Jim Wilson as Minister of Finance and Minister of Economic Development respectively and a number of veteran caucus members such as Lisa MacLeod (as Minister of Community and Social Services and Minister of Children and Youth Services), Lisa Thompson (as Minister of Education), John Yakabuski (as Minister of Transportation) and Todd Smith (as Government House Leader). Ernie Hardeman, the only PC caucus member other than Wilson with previous cabinet experience, returned to helmed the agriculture ministry, a portfolio he held in the Harris ministry. The only caucus member with federal cabinet experience Greg Rickford was given both the northern development and the indigenous affairs portfolios.
Of the twenty-one members of Ford's inaugural cabinet, seven were women, making up a third of cabinet and larger group than all previous conservative ministry, was largely inline with women's representation in the PC caucus (32.9%), and lower than the 39.5% of women representation in the legislature. The seven women translated to 28.0% of the PC women MPPs, largely in line with 27.6% of caucus being in cabinet. Stunningly however, Ford tapped only one visible minority person, Raymond Cho, making up 4.8% of cabinet, despite 22.4% of the PC caucus being persons of colours. One minister also means only 5.7% of the visible minorities caucus members were in cabinet, drastically lower than the 27.6% overall. In addition, 26 other Progressive Conservative MPPs were appointed to be parliamentary assistants.
Two major cabinet shuffle took place during this parliament, on June 20, 2019, and June 18, 2021, with smaller adjustments made to its composition on November 5, 2018, December 31, 2020, October 19, 2021, and January 14, 2022. The most senior member of cabinet brought its first scandal. On November 2, 2018, Jim Wilson resigned from cabinet and caucus following allegations of unwelcome sexual advance by staff, and Todd Smith assumed his role as Minister of Economic Development.
The initially modestly-sized executive lasted for just shy of a year. On June 20, 2019, Ford vastly expanded his cabinet by a third at its first major shuffle. Three new members, Doug Downey, Stephen Lecce and Ross Romano were given senior cabinet roles, while four others, Paul Calandra,Jill Dunlop, Kinga Surma, and Prabmeet Sarkaria were made minister without portfolio. The most significant shuffle among existing minister was Rod Phillips assuming the role of Minister of Finance. The shuffle brought its headcount to 28.
Despite the vast expansion, only two more women (for a total of nine) and one person of colour joined cabinet. With nine women in a cabinet of twenty eight translated to a slight drop to 32.1% presence, still largely inline with women's representation in the PC caucus (32.9%), and lower than the 39.5% of women representation in the legislature. The proportion of women PC MPPs members in cabinet increased to 37.5%, largely kept up with the increase to 38.4% PC MPPs overall who were in cabinet. With two of the twenty right members being persons of colour, the proportion of minorities increased to 7.1%, still far from 23.3% that now make up of caucus. Two ministers brought the proportion of minorities caucus members in cabinet to 11.8%, which the over all proportion went up 38.4%
Philips's tenure at the Treasury was short however. He was forced to resigned following criticism of his international vacations during the COVID pandemic, and was replaced by Peter Bethlenfalvy in early 2021. a major shuffle in June 2021 saw the ousting of five veteran caucus members: Ernie Hardeman (first elected 1995), John Yakabuski, Laurie Scott, (both first elected in 2003) Jeff Yurek and Bill Walker (both first elected 2011); and the entrance of six new ministers. With the departure of Hardeman, the Ford ministry no longer had any incumbent minister who had served in previous PC ministries. The exit of these veterans left Lisa MacLeod and Christ Elliott as the most senior caucus members in cabinet. The shuffle brought the cabinet to twenty-nine members, just one member less than the peak of the Wynne ministry Ford criticized much about.
While cabinet only grew by one overall, this shuffle made great stride in addressing the underrepresentation of women and visible minorities in cabinet. The number of women increased to ten (34.5%, surpassed 32.4% presence in PC caucus) and the number of racialized persons tripled to six (20.7%, only slightly lower than 23.9% presence in the PC caucus). It also meant that 43.5% of the PC members who were women, and 35.3% of the PC members who were visible minorities were in cabinet, compare to 40.8% of all PC caucus members being in cabinet.
First session
2018-19 The first session of the 42nd Parliament began on July 11, 2018, with the Speech from the Throne delivered by Lieutenant Governor Dowdeswell. In the summer session two bills were adopted. The first bill, adopted by the Parliament on July 26, was the Urgent Priorities Act (Bill 2) which enacted back-to-work legislation to end strike action at York University, canceled the White Pines wind project, and required Hydro One create new compensation packages for their chief executive officer and board of directors which would be subject to government approval. The second bill, titled Better Local Government Act, 2018 (Bill 5) removed the City of Toronto's powers to determine the composition of City Council and the division of the City into wards and replaced it with a requirement that the city's wards follow the provincial riding boundaries, as well as eliminate elected chair positions in the regions of Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka, in favour of appointed positions — all applicable to the 2018 municipal elections.