Dalton McGuinty

Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nearly 70 years earlier. In 2011, he became the first Liberal premier to secure a third consecutive term since Oliver Mowat after his party was re-elected in that year's provincial election.

McGuinty was born in Ottawa. He studied science at university, but ended up taking a law degree and practiced law in Ottawa. His father served as a Liberal member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1987 until his death in 1990. A provincial election was called for later that year and McGuinty successfully ran in his father's seat, though the incumbent Liberal government was defeated. After party leader Lyn McLeod resigned due to her leading the Liberals to a second defeat in the 1995 election, McGuinty was elected leader in the 1996 leadership election. McGuinty lost the 1999 election to Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris, but won a resounding majority in 2003.

From 2003 to 2007, McGuinty's government increased spending for health care and education. He won another majority in 2007, though his second term was deeply affected by the 2008 financial crisis, which saw government revenues plummet. In addition, a scandal developed around a new plan to update health care records called eHealth Ontario. Just prior to the 2011 election, another controversy developed when McGuinty's government cancelled gas plants that were located in key Liberal ridings and were widely opposed by the local residents. The cost to cancel the projects was close to $1 billion and the move was seen as pandering to the electorate in a few electoral districts. The scandal caused the Liberals to be reduced to a minority government.

McGuinty continued as premier for another year and a half, but the continuing gas plant issue refused to go away. He prorogued the legislature in October 2012 before being succeeded as Liberal leader and premier by Kathleen Wynne in February 2013. McGuinty resigned his own seat in June 2013. Shortly after leaving the legislature, he was named a senior fellow at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.