“THE PREMIER’S ON THE LINE…..”
Kathleen Wynne
I knew if Carly came into my office to say the Premier wanted to speak with me, that Bill Davis was on the phone.
It’s not that Premier Davis and I were in constant communication, but from the time I was appointed Minister of Education in 2006 through my time as Premier, I was the recipient of regular calls of encouragement.
He was the 18th person to sit in the Premier’s chair. I was the 25th. He, a truly progressive Progressive Conservative, I, a Liberal. Premier Davis was kind to me. He understood the job I was doing. He never let me forget that he thought my partisan choice was misguided but Party stripe never coloured our conversations. Except, of course, that he was clear we could only have our chats up until six months before an election—after that, until the election was decided, we were on our Party teams.
Sometimes there was a specific issue, displeasure with a transit plan for Brampton or excitement at the idea of a university campus in Brampton—the specific issues usually pertained to Brampton and he just wanted me to know his perspective. But more often than not, the Premier would reach out to reassure me. “Don’t take what they are saying too personally or too seriously” was the gist of many of our calls.
I was always just a little bit nervous on those calls. This was the man who stood for all the strengths of Ontario and our place in Canada. It’s not so much that Bill Davis was a particular hero of mine growing up, but he was the Minister of Education when I was in elementary school and Premier from the year I graduated from high school until I was a young mom of three kids. I respected him when I first met him because of his political achievement and his position.
After all, he had helped form my generation’s idea of what the social contract in Ontario was; that government existed to do the things that people cannot do by themselves. He believed deeply in publicly funded education. He believed that government could open opportunity for all of Ontario’s youth—that was the point of his vision of the community college system. He was affable, congenial, and decent.
When Mike Harris was elected Premier of Ontario, it was the values of Bill Davis that were cast aside. I was not even a card carrying Liberal in 1995 but it was that break with the decency of the Ontario of Bill Davis that drew me into partisan political life.
My respect for Premier Davis grew as I came to know him as a man. He had overcome such pain and agony in his private life but had continued to serve. I came to love my encounters with him and Kathleen—it was so obviously a loving partnership and so clearly the heart that had supported those decades of service.
One of my most important political mentors, Sheila Ward had worked for Premier Davis in his Queen’s Park office overlapping at some point with young John Tory. Sheila was a lifelong Liberal who really introduced me to the mechanics of party politics. She thought the world of Bill Davis as a man and as a practical, consensus-building politician. The fact that she held him in such high regard speaks to a different, less divisive political era but also to the decency of the man. So when his protégé and her former colleague, John Tory, ran against me in 2007 in Don Valley West, she was just a little bit torn and I think it’s safe to say that Premier Davis never forgave me completely for defeating John.
The world of politics can be a pretty dark, angry place and I would argue that is even more true today than it was 40 years ago. Social media, polarization and deepening economic inequity have all played a role in that toxicity. And yet here was Bill Davis until the day he died, an elderly statesman, fully engaged in the issues of the day, full of humour and optimism about life. And although his days in office had been in a different time, he embodied what it meant to see the big picture.
Bill Davis demonstrated to all of us that his service to the people of Ontario was born of genuine commitment. He stayed connected to political life. He stayed curious and engaged. He thought political life was important and worthy. And honestly, that alone always made me happy to hear from him.
The passing of Premier Davis leaves a big gap in the political landscape in Ontario. As long as he was alive and engaged, he was a touchstone for progressive conservativism. His good opinion mattered. More than that, he was a reminder to all of us, of all party stripes, that decency and flexibility, not vitriol and ideology, built this beautiful province.
I had the privilege of attending a couple of naming ceremonies—one at TVO where a studio was named in his honour and one at Ontario Place where our government opened the beautiful William G. Davis Trail. I think it pleased him to have those honours, but they were not the point for him. He was more interested in the present and the future than in the past which is probably why it took Steve Paikin so long to convince him to let him write his biography.
I am going to hazard a guess that Bill Davis is one politician whose name is going to stand the test of time.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kathleen Wynne - Kathleen Wynne was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 as the MPP for Don Valley West. She was Ontario’s 25th Premier and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from January 2013 to June 2018. Kathleen has dedicated her professional life to building a better province for the people of Ontario. She is guided by the values and principles that knit the province of Ontario together: fairness, diversity, collaboration and creativity.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Air Quotes media. Read more opinion contributions via QUOTES from Air Quotes Media.