Don Cousens - Provincial Politics

Provincial Politics

Cousens was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election, defeating Liberal Alf Stong in the riding of York Centre. He served as a backbench supporter of Bill Davis's government for four years. Cousens initially supported Dennis Timbrell to succeed Davis in the Progressive Conservative Party's 1985 leadership convention, but crossed over to Frank Miller on the last ballot. He was named parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Citizenship and Culture on February 25, 1985, shortly after Miller was sworn in as Premier of Ontario.

Cousens was re-elected in the 1985 provincial election, but the Progressive Conservatives were reduced to an unstable minority government. He was appointed Minister of Correction Services on May 17, but accomplished little of consequence before the Miller government was defeated in the house in June. Along with other members of the Tory caucus, he moved to the opposition benches as Liberal leader David Peterson became Premier.

The Progressive Conservatives were reduced to only 16 seats in the 1987 provincial election. Cousens defeated Liberal Gail Newall by fewer than 1,000 votes in the new riding of Markham, although he held no official critic positions in the Legislature which followed.

In the 1990 provincial elections, Cousens scored a victory over Liberal Frank Scarpitti, winning by more than 10,000 votes. The Progressive Conservatives as a whole managed only a modest recovery, however, increased their caucus size from sixteen to twenty. Cousens served as his party's critic for Environment, Finance, and Citizenship, Race Relations and Human Rights at various times in next parliament. He also became a leading opponent of Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) John Sola in 1991, after Sola made comments about Canadian Serbs that were generally regarded as racist. Sola was later expelled from the Liberal Party.

Cousens once brought forward a private member's bill to outlaw smoking in public places.

A Red Tory by inclination, Cousens played little role in the party's drift to the right under Mike Harris. He resigned his seat in the legislature on September 30, 1994 to campaign for mayor of Markham, and was the only member of the 1990 Ontario PC caucus not to seek re-election to the legislature in 1995.