page_title: Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
section_title: Mike Harris and the "Common Sense Revolution"
hierarchical_section_title: Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario / History / Mike Harris and the "Common Sense Revolution"
caption_attribution_description: English: Mike Harris
context_page_description: The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Doug Ford since March 10, 2018.
  It has governed the province for 80 of the 153 years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985. It currently holds a majority government in the 42nd Parliament of Ontario.
context_section_description: In the 1995 election, Harris catapulted his party from third place to an election victory, running on a libertarian platform known as the "Common Sense Revolution" that highlighted a number of "wedge issues" and promised significant tax cuts, cuts to welfare, the introduction of workfare, and a 30% reduction in provincial income taxes. Harris went on to win a second majority in 1999 despite the strikes and protests that plagued his first term in office.
  The Harris government was criticized on issues such as health care, the environment, education, and its social policies, but it won a second majority in the 1999 general election and it remained generally popular until Harris's departure as party leader in 2002.
  The slide in PC support began in early 2000, according to Ipsos-Reid, when the Tories fell behind the Liberals in the public opinion polls for the first time since the 1999 election, with 36% support of those polled, compared to 42% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP. Later in 2000, Liberal support rose to about half of those polled, while PC support remained in the low 30s. This pattern held through to the 2002 leadership campaign, when PC support rose to 37%, while the Liberals retained the support of about half of those polled.
caption: Ontario's 22nd Premier Mike Harris
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