Chris Stockwell

Chris Stockwell
MPP for Etobicoke Centre
In office 1999–2003
Preceded by	new riding
Succeeded by	Donna Cansfield
MPP for Etobicoke West
In office 1990–1999
Preceded by	Linda LeBourdais
Succeeded by	riding abolished
Personal details
Born	March 9, 1957 (1957-03-09) (age 54) London, Ontario
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Occupation	Political consultant

Chris Stockwell (born March 9, 1957) is a former 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 had 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 was not 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.^{[citation needed]}

Stockwell was elected Speaker of the Assembly on October 3, 1996, after Al McLean was forced to resign from the position.^{[citation needed]} He was not Mike Harris's preferred choice for the position (the Premier supported Margaret Marland)^{[citation needed]} but won with support from members in all three parties. Stockwell won a reputation for independence in the Speaker's chair, and was not 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 did not need to vote on each amendment, but in their favor when they suggested that the identical text did not 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.^{[citation needed]} On June 17, 1999, he was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Labour.

Despite Stockwell's reputation as a Red Tory^{[citation needed]}, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Environment.

On June 17, 2003, he resigned from cabinet in the wake of a controversy concerning the misuse of expenses.^[1] 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 had claimed $3000 in bar bills for himself and his staff as government expenses.^[1]

On July 25, 2003, Stockwell announced that he would not run in the 2003 election.^[2]

Stockwell was known for his oratorical skills^{[citation needed]} and was arguably the best speaker on the government benches.^{[citation needed]} Along with Liberal George Smitherman, he was perhaps the most energetic speaker in the legislature from 1999 to 2003.^{[citation needed]} He is currently employed as a political consultant.

Electoral record (partial)

1999 Ontario provincial election : Etobicoke Centre edit
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/-	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	(x)Chris Stockwell	25,518	54.12		$49,034
	Liberal	Agnes Ugolini Potts	19,035	40.37		$41,081
	New Democratic Party	Bonte Minnema	1,309	2.78		$1,896
	Family Coalition	Dan McCash	389	0.83		$31
	Green	Christopher J. Morton	375	0.80		none listed
	Natural Law Party	Geraldine Jackson	316	0.67		$0
	Ind. (Marxist-Leninist)	Elaine Couto	209	0.44		$26
Total valid votes			47,151	100.00
Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			414
Turnout			47,565	64.55
Electors on the lists			73,691

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Chris Stockwell resigns from Ontario cabinet. CTV News. June 17, 2003
2. ^ Ontario Tory Chris Stockwell to quit politics. CTV News. July 25, 2003

External links

• Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Chris Stockwell MPP profile
• Environment Voters: Chris Stockwell profile

Persondata
Name	Stockwell, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 9, 1957
Place of birth	London, Ontario
Date of death
Place of death