In Opposition
The Liberals were defeated by the NDP in the 1990 election, although Curling managed to retain his riding by about 4,000 votes. He was also re-elected without much difficulty in the face of Progressive Conservative majority governments of 1995 and 1999 (on the latter occasion, he was re-elected in the redistributed riding of Scarborough—Rouge River). From 1996 to 1999, he served as Deputy House Leader for the Liberals.
In 1995, he gained notoriety for his 18-hour filibuster-like protest against the Mike Harris government's Omnibus Bill 26. When Curling was ordered expelled from the legislature for using what was judged to be unparliamentary language, he refused to leave his seat, and a knot of fellow Liberal and NDP opposition members formed a cordon around him to prevent his physical removal. Reports stated that when legislature staff saw Frances Lankin, NDP MPP and a former prison guard, among the cordon, they backed off. Curling claimed his protest was meant to highlight a lack of public consultation in the Harris government's bill.
Curling supported Joseph Cordiano for the Ontario Liberal Party leadership in 1996 (Ottawa Citizen, 21 November 1996).
Read more about this topic: Alvin Curling
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