Provincial Politics
Mahoney was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating his closest opponent by over 14,000 votes in the newly-created riding of Mississauga West. For the next three years, he served as a backbench Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) supporting the government of David Peterson.
The Liberals lost the 1990 provincial election, though Mahoney was re-elected without difficulty and became Chief Opposition Whip. He ran for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1992, although he had only a minimal support base within the party. Most political observers believed he was attempting to increase his public profile, to be assured of a cabinet position when the Liberals returned to power. He was generally regarded as being on the right-wing of the party during this campaign.
Mahoney placed fifth out of six candidates on the first ballot of the 1992 Liberal leadership convention, following a nomination speech that one reporter likened to a stream-of-consciousness performance. He withdrew from the contest after the second ballot, and endorsed Lyn McLeod. (This support was pivotal to McLeod's victory on the fifth ballot, as she defeated runner-up Murray Elston by only nine votes.)
Read more about this topic: Steve Mahoney
Famous quotes containing the words provincial and/or politics:
“With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan,—mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards; because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth; because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufacturers and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“One might imagine that a movement which is so preoccupied with the fulfillment of human potential would have a measure of respect for those who nourish its source. But politics make strange bedfellows, and liberated women have elected to become part of a long tradition of hostility to mothers.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)