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Dennis Roy Timbrell (born November 13, 1946) is a
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 Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. He was a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1971 to 1987, and was a
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 Progressive Conservative governments of
Bill Davis William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Behind Oliver Mowat, Davis was the List of premiers of Ontario by time in office, second-longes ...
and Frank Miller.


Background

Timbrell was born in
Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...
and educated at Woburn Collegiate Institute in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
and
York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...
in
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 ...
. His brother Robert was an actor and performer, better known by the stage name Rusty Ryan. Timbrell worked as a teacher before entering provincial politics, and served as an
alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...
in
North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...
from January 1970 until September 1, 1972.


Provincial politics

Timbrell contested 1971 provincial election as a candidate for the PCs, and won election in the Toronto 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 ...
. He was re-elected without difficulty in the campaigns of
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
,
1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...
,
1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...
and
1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...
.


Cabinet

He became a
minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...
responsible for youth in the Davis government on February 26, 1974, making him the youngest cabinet member in the province's histor

ref name="1974DavisCabinet"> He was then named as Ministry of Energy (Ontario), minister of energy on January 15, 1975. On February 3, 1977, he was promoted to
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 ...
, serving in this high-profile position for five years; no successor has since exceeded Timbrell's tenure in this ministry. He then requested a change in portfolio to minister of agriculture and food on February 13, 1982, with the aim of building a base of support in the rural areas of the province to strengthen future leadership credentials.


First leadership campaign

Following Davis's resignation as PC leader and as Premier of Ontario, premier, Timbrell sought the party leadership at the January 1985
leadership convention {{Politics of Canada In Politics of Canada, Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leadership, leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader. Overview In Canada, ...
. He positioned himself as a centre-right candidate, further to the right of
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 ...
rivals Larry Grossman and
Roy McMurtry Roland Roy McMurtry (May 31, 1932 – March 18, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician in Ontario. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1985, serving in the cabinet of Bill Dav ...
, but not as far to the right as Frank Miller, and therefore the candidate best able to continue Davis' pragmatic, successful style of government. (In fact, many media pundits at the time referred to Timbrell as a "clone" of Davis; playing to this, some of Timbrell's supporters at the January 1985 convention wore buttons that depicted a caricature which morphed the facial features of both Davis and Timbrell into one person). Timbrell was the only candidate to favour eliminating rent controls during the campaign. His supporters included Keith Norton, Leo Bernier, Margaret Birch, Robert Eaton, Gordon Dean, Bob Welch and Norm Sterling. Davis was officially neutral in this contest, but has since admitted that he personally voted for Timbrel

Timbrell placed second on the first ballot, but was eliminated when he fell to third place on the second ballot, six votes behind Grossman who had the backing of McMurtry's campaign. Dr. John Balkwill in 1987 claimed that 30 to 40 Miller supporters were instructed by the Miller campaign to vote for Grossman on the second ballot to prevent him from advancing. Lou Parsons, a senior Miller adviser, later acknowledged, "We wouldn't have won it against Dennis ..Our winning strategy was always to be against Larry ... and in the end we were lucky." A member of Miller's campaign has since apologized to Timbrell for this tactic. Timbrell reluctantly endorsed Grossman after the results were confirmed by a recount. He however did not bring enough delegates on the third ballot and that resulted in Miller's victory. He was retained in Miller's Cabinet as minister of municipal affairs and housing with responsibility for women's issues.


Second leadership campaign

The Progressive Conservative Party under Miller's leadership was reduced to a narrow
minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
in the 1985 election. Following a cabinet shuffle on May 17, 1985, Timbrell retained his previous postings and was additionally appointed provincial secretary for resource development. Miller's government was defeated in the House in June, 1985. In opposition, Timbrell served as House leader of the Official Opposition and his party's critic for education and women's issues. Miller resigned as leader, and the party called another
leadership convention {{Politics of Canada In Politics of Canada, Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leadership, leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader. Overview In Canada, ...
for November 1985. This contest was an extremely divisive struggle between Timbrell and Grossman, which exposed deep divisions in the party. A third candidate, Alan Pope, drew attention to the animosity between the candidates with his slogan, "Don't choose sides, choose Pope".
Alan Eagleson Robert Alan Eagleson (born April 24, 1933) is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, hockey agent and promoter. Clients that he represented included superstars Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler. He was the first executive director of the NHL Players Assoc ...
was a co-chairman of Timbrell's campaign. In this leadership race, Timbrell announced he would not support the full funding of Catholic schools (which had previously been agreed to by all parties in the legislature) unless amendments were put forward guaranteeing entry to non-Catholic teachers and students. Norm Sterling, an inveterate opponent of Catholic school funding, derided Timbrell's position as opportunistic and crossed over to Grossman. Pope finished third on the opening ballot and some believed that he could have given Timbrell a second-ballot victory over Grossman, though Pope chose not to endorse either side. Grossman defeated Timbrell on the second ballot by nineteen votes, effectively ending Timbrell's career in provincial politics. He did not seek re-election in 1987, as his two unsuccessful leadership bids had left him with a debt of $250,000. Despite no longer being an MPP, Timbrell was seen by many as the front runner to succeed Grossman in the 1990 Ontario PC Leadership Race, but he chose not to run, instead supporting the candidacy of Dianne Cunningham, who would eventually lose to
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 ...
.


Private sector career

Timbrell served as president of the
Ontario Hospital Association The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is a member association that represents approximately 154 public hospitals in Ontario, Canada. History At the request of Dr. Fred W. Routley, then the Ontario Director of the Canadian Red Cross, a gr ...
from 1991 to 1995. He also served as a director of the St. Joseph's Health System (Sisters of St. Joseph, Morrow Park) from 1986 to 1988 and a director of the
Toronto School of Theology Affiliated with the University of Toronto, the Toronto School of Theology (TST) is an Ecumenism, ecumenical consortium of seven Seminary, theological colleges. Its seven member schools are Emmanuel College, Toronto, Emmanuel College, Knox College, ...
from 1986 to 1992 and in 1997–2003 (vice-chairman from 1991 to 1993 and in 1997–2000, chairman from 2000 to 2003). He has served as a director of various corporations, including Cabot Trust, Confederation Leasing, Confederation Trust, Ontario Blue Cross, United Telemanagement (Canada) Corporation and Eco Power Solutions Inc. From 2001 to 2005 Timbrell was engaged by the Ontario Ministry of Health to act as Supervisor of The Ottawa Hospital and then Investigator of The Niagara Health System and Hotel Dieu Hospital (St. Catharines) as well as Investigator of the Grand River and St. Mary's Hospitals in Waterloo Region. His work with the leadership of these hospitals resulted in renewed/revised mandates which emphasized the unique attributes of each institution while ensuring minimal overlap and with co-ordination of their respective areas of expertise. In Ottawa Timbrell oversaw the recruitment of a complete new Board of Governors, drawn from the vast region served by TOH; having dismissed the incumbent CEO of the Hospital, he appointed a new President from the ranks of the Senior Team and created the position of Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer. All of the Hospitals for which Timbrell was Supervisor or Investigator have gone from strength to strength in the last twenty years. He was originally appointed by a PC Government and successfully continued his roles with a Liberal Government. In his earlier role as President of the OHA, he established a very productive relationship with NDP Health Minister (now Senator) Frances Lankin which contributed to significant improvements in Ministry programs and policies directly affecting all hospitals in Ontario.


Federal politics

In
1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...
and again in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
Timbrell campaigned for a seat in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
as the federal Progressive Conservative candidate in the eastern Ontario riding of Prince Edward—Hastings In the 1997 federal election, Timbrell placed second to Liberal Lyle Vanclief, with 21.5% of the vote. In the 2000 election, Timbrell placed third with 20.3% of the vote.


Recognition

In 2006,
Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...
voted to name the community recreation centre, aquatic centre, library and child care facility, located at 29 St. Dennis Drive, Don Mills the "Dennis R. Timbrell Resource Centre in Flemingdon Park". Timbrell has received the following forms of recognition: 1977 - Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal 1978 - Officer of The Order of St. John of Jerusalem 1992 - Canada Confederation 125 Medal 1993 - Knight of Malta 2012 - Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Timbrell, Dennis 1946 births Living people Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Politicians from Kingston, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Candidates in the 1997 Canadian federal election Candidates in the 2000 Canadian federal election Ontario candidates for Member of Parliament 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario