Mike Harris

Michael Deane Harris OOnt (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time as party leader, he heavily nudged the Ontario PC Party to Blue Toryism, advocating for the "Common Sense Revolution", his government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and budget cuts.

Mike Harris

Quotes

|* The exemption from rent controls of vacant units was a compromise solution between total control or total de-control. It has been very successful at achieving its first goal of allowing landlords to repair existing units and moving them to market rents. This kept a lot of units in the rental market that otherwise would have disappeared. Secondly it has spurred a building boom of condo units that substantially increases the supply as well.

• • Say hello to the man who deserves credit for all the condominiums that have sprung up all across the city over the last decade by Garry Marr (Nov 22, 2012)

Quotes about Harris

• His friends and family swear they knew that once Mike Harris found politics, it was just a matter of time until he made it to the top. If pundits marvel at how he defied the polls to tap into grassroots discontent, they also might note that he did not have to go far to hear those rumblings
  • Michael Deane Harris (Profile) (This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on June 19, 1995)