David John Johnson (born December 17, 1945) is a former

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

in Ontario, Canada. He was the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

East York East York is a district and former municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The borough was dissolved ...

from 1982 to 1993, a Progressive Conservative member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

from 1993 to 1999, and a senior

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

in the government of

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...

Background

Johnson has a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

, and a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in Mathematics from the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

. After graduation, he worked at

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited () is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, ...

from 1968 to 1982.

Politics

Municipal

Johnson served as an alderman in East York from 1972 to 1982, and was the mayor of the former

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

borough from 1982 to 1993. He also served on the Metropolitan Toronto Council from 1978 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1993.

Provincial

He was elected to the provincial legislature in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

held on April 1, 1993, following the death of NDP member Margery Ward in the constituency of

Don Mills Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper in the suburb of North York. Consisting of residenti ...

. Johnson defeated his Liberal opponent, Murad Velshi, by about 3,500 votes. Johnson was easily re-elected in the 1995 provincial election, in which the Progressive Conservatives won a majority government under Mike Harris. He was appointed as Chair of the Management Board of Cabinet on June 26, 1995, and was also appointed as government house leader on August 16, 1996. He developed a reputation as a calm and skilled negotiator, and generally tried to remain above the partisan bantering that frequently dominates legislative sittings. Johnson also served as interim

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

from December 9, 1996, to February 21, 1997. On October 10, 1997, Johnson replaced John Snobelen as Ontario's

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

. This occurred at a time when the Harris government was preparing for an imminent showdown with the province's teaching unions. It was generally accepted that Johnson was a much more professional negotiator than Snobelen, and that he was promoted accordingly. Almost immediately after assuming the job, Johnson was confronted with a six-week strike from the public school unions. After the strike ended, Johnson moved forward legislative initiatives which gave the province the discretionary połwer to dismiss elected school boards, reduced the bargaining power of the unions, and altered funding in a manner that threatened several schools with closure. Johnson himself did not have a significant role in developing these policies, and was sometimes regarded as simply the government's liaison. Nonetheless, his position as Education Minister made him extremely unpopular with the province's public-schools unions. Johnson's own political philosophy was considerably more centrist than that of the Harris government. He made little secret of the fact that he was a

Red Tory A Red Tory is an adherent of a Centre-right politics, centre-right or Paternalistic conservatism, paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition. It is most predominant in Canada; however, it is also found in the ...

, and often appeared uncomfortable defending the Harris ministry's more right-wing initiatives. In a parliamentary democracy resigning from cabinet is the most visible way to express disagreement with government policy. Johnson never resigned from cabinet. In the 1999 provincial election, and following a redistribution of seats, he surprised many observers by running in the marginal riding of

Don Valley East Don Valley East () is a former federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada that covers the northeast section of the North York part of Toronto. The federal riding was created in 1976 from parts of Willowdale, York East, York North, and Y ...

rather than the safer Tory seat of Don Valley West. Some even speculated that he was giving himself a means of leaving the government after a single term. Johnson was defeated by Liberal

David Caplan David Richard Caplan (November 15, 1964 – July 24, 2019) was a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represented the ridings of Oriole (provincial electoral district), Oriole ...

, by about 2,500 votes. After the election, he was appointed chair of the

Ontario Municipal Board The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) was an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It heard applications and appeals on municipal and planning disputes, as well as other matters s ...

. He was removed in 2003 after the

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...

took power.

Federal

In the 2004 federal election, Johnson ran as the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

candidate in the federal Don Valley East riding. He lost to Liberal

Yasmin Ratansi Yasmin Ratansi (born January 4, 1951) is a former Canadian politician who represented the Toronto-area riding of Don Valley East in the House of Commons from 2004 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2021. She was elected as a Liberal in the 2004 f ...

by more than 10,000 votes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, David 1945 births 20th-century mayors of places in Ontario Living people Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Mayors of East York, Ontario McMaster University alumni Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Metropolitan Toronto councillors Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario