Everything about Gerry Phillips totally explained
Gerry Phillips (born
September 11,
1940 in
London,
Ontario) is a
politician in Ontario,
Canada. He is currently a member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and serves as Minister of Energy in the government of
Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Phillips was educated at the
University of Western Ontario's School of Business, and worked as a managing consultant before entering public life. He worked in the marketing department of
Procter & Gamble, and joined the Canadian Marketing Associates organization in
1970 (becoming its President in
1977). Phillips founded the Sales Development Group in
1979 and the Retail Resource Group in
1982, and also served on the Board of Governors of the
Scarborough General Hospital during this period.
Phillips began his political career as a school trustee, serving for a total of eleven years on the Scarborough Board of Education and the Metropolitan Toronto School Board (and eventually becoming chair of both organizations). He also ran for the Ontario legislature as a
Liberal in the
provincial election of 1975, but lost to
Progressive Conservative Tom Wells in
Scarborough North by about 3,000 votes.
Phillips was more successful in his second bid for the Ontario legislature. He was easily elected in
Scarborough—Agincourt in the
provincial election of 1987, defeating his nearest opponent,
David Kho of the
Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) by over 12,000 votes. The Liberals won a landslide majority in this election under
David Peterson. On
September 29,
1987, Phillips was appointed
Minister of Citizenship, with responsibility for
Race Relations,
Multiculturalism and the
Ontario Human Rights Commission. In August
1989, he was transferred to the
Ministry of Labour.
The Liberals were upset by the NDP in the
provincial election of 1990, although Phillips was re-elected without difficulty in his own riding. Tory
Keith MacNab finished second. In opposition, he held Official Critic portfolios in Health, Finance and Native Affairs. In
1992, he supported
Lyn McLeod's successful campaign to become party leader.
The
1995 provincial election was won by the Progressive Conservatives, and Phillips only narrowly won re-election in Agincourt, defeating
Keith MacNab by about 2,000 votes. Many suspected that Phillips would run for the party's leadership when
Lyn McLeod resigned in
1996, but he declined and supported
Gerard Kennedy, who lost to Dalton McGuinty on the final ballot. Phillips was appointed as the party's Deputy Leader in
1998, and we featured prominently in Liberal television advertisements in the
1999 provincial election.
Phillips's own re-election in
1999 wasn't guaranteed. Despite an endorsement from the
right-wing Toronto Sun tabloid newspaper (which usually supports Tory candidates), he came within 3,000 votes of losing to incumbent Tory
Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP)
Jim Brown. (The
Mike Harris government had previously reduced the number of ridings from 130 to 103, forcing several MPPs to face one another for re-election.) The Progressive Conservatives won re-election across the province, and Phillips remained a leading figure on the opposition benches. In his capacity as Native Affairs Critic, Phillips helped lead the fight for a public inquiry into the
1995 shooting death of protester
Dudley George by members of the
Ontario Provincial Police.
The Liberal Party won a landslide majority in the
2003 election, and Phillips was re-elected with 61% support in his riding. Under different circumstances, he'd have been the logical choice for
Finance Minister in the new government. This position, however, was claimed by
Greg Sorbara, who had played a prominent organizational role in the party's campaign, and Phillips was instead appointed as
Chair of the Management Board.
As
Ontario Chair of the Management Board, Phillips was responsible for management of the government's employees, assets and property, as well as control of spending.
In the fall of 2003, Phillips introduced a bill to ban partisan government advertising, a key election commitment of the Liberal Party. The bill called on the Auditor General to review all government advertising to screen out those that promote the electoral interests of the governing party.
Due to possible perceptions of conflict of interest, oversight of the
Ontario Securities Commission was transferred from Finance Minister
Greg Sorbara to Phillips in the winter of 2004. He has recently called for Canada to adopt a common securities regulator, rather than relying on separate regulation for each province.
In June of 2005, Phillips reached an agreement with the
Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the provincial government's largest union, representing 42,000 employees. This was a marked contrast to the Progressive Conservative governments of
Mike Harris and
Ernie Eves, which drew strikes from OPSEU in two rounds of bargaining.
After a cabinet shuffle on
June 29,
2005, Phillips's portfolio was restructured as the Minister of Government Services. The new Ministry takes on most of the core services of the former
Management Board Secretariat,
Consumer and Business Services and a large part of the
Cabinet Office. During interviews on his new cabinet, Premier McGuinty described the new portfolio as the "Chief Operating Officer of the government."
After an investigation by the Auditor General found lax protocols in the awarding of grants to cultural agencies, Phillips was named
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with a mandate to ensure proper handling of grants.
Phillips is regarded as a fiscal conservative and an ally of Ontario's business community. He is also a prominent supporter of cultural diversity (his riding in
Scarborough has a large immigrant population). Most parliamentarians respect him as a diligent worker and intelligent contributor to the legislative process.
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