Early Political Career
Harris was first elected to public office as a school board trustee in 1974. He entered provincial politics in the 1981 election, and defeated the incumbent Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in Nipissing, Mike Bolan. Harris later suggested that he was motivated to enter politics by an opposition to the policies of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
He sat as a backbencher in Bill Davis's Progressive Conservative government from 1981 to 1985. He supported Frank Miller's successful bid to succeed Davis as party leader in 1985, and took the role of rival candidate Dennis Timbrell to prepare Miller for the party's all-candidate debates. Miller was sworn in as Premier of Ontario on February 8, 1985, and appointed Harris as his Minister of Natural Resources.
The Tories were reduced to a minority government in the 1985 provincial election, although Harris was personally re-elected without difficulty. He kept the Natural Resources portfolio after the election, and was also named Minister of Energy on May 17, 1985. Time limitations prevented Harris from making many notable contributions in these portfolios, as the Miller government was soon defeated on a motion of no confidence by David Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's New Democratic Party.
An agreement between the Liberals and the NDP allowed a Liberal minority government to govern for two years in exchange for the implementation of certain NDP policies. This decision consigned the Tories to opposition for the first time in 42 years. Miller resigned and was replaced by Larry Grossman, who led the party to a disastrous showing in the 1987 election and announced his resignation shortly thereafter. Harris was again re-elected in Nipissing without difficulty.
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