Peterson was elected as the Liberal
Member of Provincial Parliament for
London Centre in the
1975 provincial election. Less than one year later, he campaigned for the
leadership of the party following
Robert Nixon's resignation. Despite his inexperience, Peterson nevertheless came within 45 votes of defeating
Stuart Smith on the third and final ballot of a delegated convention held on January 25, 1976. Smith presented an image of an articulate intellectual who some delegates said reminded them of
Pierre Trudeau while Peterson came across as similar to then Premier
Bill Davis. Convention delegates also thought that Peterson, a neophyte MPP at 31 years old, was too young and his convention address which he later characterized as the "worst speech in modern political history" came across as stilted and over rehearsed. Peterson was re-elected in the provincial elections of
1977 and
1981. He ran again for the
Liberal leadership in 1982, after Smith resigned. The convention was held on February 21, 1982. This time his convention speech was better. Although not very inspiring, it was viewed as 'statesmanlike' and effective. He won on the second ballot defeating the more left-leaning
Sheila Copps with 55% of the vote. In his acceptance speech Peterson said that he would move party to the 'vibrant middle, the radical centre', and stressed economic growth as a way to increase support for social services. Observers from the other parties felt he was trying to move the Liberal party more to the right, away from values that Smith promoted.
Liberal leader Peterson worked to pay off the party's debt from the 1981 election and accomplished that by the end of the year and was working on long-term debt. Peterson performed well as opposition leader and was popular in the press. The party started to use him as a label rather than 'Liberal' referring to 'David Peterson's Ontario'. A by-election loss to the NDP was attributed to dislike of Federal Liberals. In 1984, four of the party's senior MPPs quit provincial politics to run for the federal Liberal government led by
John Turner, who had just won the party leadership to succeed a retiring
Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister; ending up the federal Liberals' support collapsed and they were badly defeated in the
election by
Brian Mulroney. Polling in late 1984 showed Peterson's Liberals consistently trailing behind the Progressive Conservatives. Premier Davis still polled as the most popular leader. Peterson's fortunes improved when Davis retired as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in early 1985. His successor,
Frank Miller, took the party further to the right, and was unable to convince the electorate of his leadership abilities. Though Miller's Tories began the
election in 1985 with a significant lead, Peterson's Liberals gradually increased their support throughout the campaign. Peterson frequently campaigned in his red jogging suit and projected the image of a younger urban leader, contrasting with Miller who was increasingly seen as too old and rural. Shortly after the election, NDP leader
Bob Rae called Peterson to negotiate. Rae also initiated talks with Premier Miller but the talks with the Liberals proved more fruitful. Rae and Peterson signed a "Liberal-NDP Accord" in which the NDP agreed to support a Liberal government in office for two years. The Liberals, in turn, agreed to implement some policies favoured by the NDP. Rae wanted to have a coalition with representation in cabinet but Peterson indicated that he would not accept a coalition. To make sure the public would not misconstrue the agreement as a coalition, Peterson made sure that there would be no photos of him and Rae signing the agreement.
Premier of Ontario Leadership style The Liberals and NDP defeated Miller's government on June 18, 1985, when Rae introduced a
motion of no confidence on the
speech from the throne. Peterson was sworn in as Premier of Ontario eight days later. Peterson's top three cabinet ministers were
Robert Nixon as Treasurer,
Sean Conway as Education Minister, and
Ian Scott as Attorney General. After the expiration of the Liberal-NDP Accord in 1987, the Liberals called another
provincial election, and won the second-largest
majority government in Ontario's history, taking 95 seats out of 130, at the expense of the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives who dropped to third place in the legislature. After the 1987 election, Peterson told the newly enlarged caucus at their first meeting that his popularity may have got most of them elected, but warned that he would likely need their help getting re-elected next time, since he understood that his massive victory had created expectations that simply couldn’t be met. These revelations led to a cabinet shuffle by Peterson in which five ministers who had received contributions lost their positions. On June 24, 1989, Peterson ordered a judicial inquiry be set up to investigate the matter. Initially Starr wanted to participate in the inquiry saying, "I stand by all the things I participated in ... I think the inquiry will be a positive thing." Later on she moved to have the inquiry quashed. In January 1990, the
Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed her request. Two weeks later the
Supreme Court of Canada gave her leave to appeal. In a decision in April, the Supreme Court declared the inquiry unconstitutional. Starr successfully argued that an inquiry investigating criminal charges would deny subjects their full legal rights. Public inquiries can compel witnesses to testify but criminal trial defendants can refuse to testify. Starr was eventually sentenced to six months' jail time. Although no-one in Peterson's administration was accused of criminal activity, the scandal eroded public confidence in the integrity of the government. Polls showed that more than half of respondents felt that Peterson had poorly handled the matter and 61% felt that it revealed widespread corruption in the government.
Fiscal policy The Peterson administration also developed a reputation for fiscal prudence, under the management of
Treasurer Robert Nixon. The Liberal government was able to introduce a balanced budget for 1989–1990 following several years of
deficit spending in Ontario, at a time when deficit spending was commonplace in most of North America. In the
early 1990s recession, Ontario faced a weakening North American economy. Productivity levels were falling throughout the
United States and Canada during this period. While there was little that Peterson, or any other Ontario Premier, could have done to prevent this downturn, it weakened his government's reputation for fiscal competence. (Indeed, the government's projected surplus budget for 1990–1991 ultimately yielded a deficit of at least three billion dollars.) Peterson "was getting a ton of advice to call an early snap election after less than three years" and "pundits warned Peterson he certainly didn’t want to call an election in 1991, in the middle of a deep recession". The NDP having never won an Ontario election and Official Opposition leader Bob Rae was considering retiring from the legislature after one more term. As a result, Peterson decided to call a
snap election, less than three years into his mandate. This proved to be his greatest mistake. Peterson's personal popularity rating based on his Meech Lake record was 54%. However, his luck turned immediately upon calling the election. One of the seminal moments in the campaign was at a press conference called to announce the forthcoming election. Peterson justified the early writ claiming "especially after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, Ontario faced 'profound changes in this country and the world' and that he needed to protect the province in the event of a national-unity crisis", while denying "that he was being an opportunist and trying to capitalize on polling results that put Liberal support at 50 per cent". It was soon interrupted without intervention by security or police by
Greenpeace activist
Gord Perks, who arrived with a briefcase handcuffed to his arm, with a tape recorder inside playing a pre-recorded list of broken Liberal environmental promises. Peterson sat in front of the room full of reporters, awkwardly silent and clearly uncomfortable. Peterson's Liberal party, regarded as a challenger in 1985, was seen by the end of the 1980s as a "juggernaut that became arrogant and didn’t listen to its critics". As the PC and NDP opposition parties were weakened after the 1987 election, it fell to the media and other special interest groups (particularly teachers’ unions and environmental groups) who were criticizing the Ontario government at a level not seen with past administrations. The media reported the election call as cynical, and the party appeared desperate when they unexpectedly proposed to cut the provincial sales tax halfway through the campaign. It did not help that the provincial election campaign was being run in the aftermath of the failed
Meech Lake constitutional accord of
Brian Mulroney's federal government, with which Peterson had significant media exposure in association with the other first ministers. Peterson felt that the Liberals’ fading poll numbers "reflected greater anxieties about the world and that the party had failed to successfully communicate his government’s accomplishments"; by contrast the NDP's hastily assembled platform called "Agenda for People" managed to escape heavy scrutiny due to their underdog status. As the NDP gained momentum, the Liberals panicked as many candidates removed Peterson from their campaign materials and distanced themselves from Peterson, while Treasurer Robert Nixon proposed a cut to the sales tax. The Liberal campaign slogan shifted from “Effective leadership for a strong Ontario” to “Warning: An NDP government will be hazardous to your health.”
Toronto Sun columnist Michael Bennett summed up the divergent fortunes of the Liberals and NDP as campaign progressed, writing “As Peterson became more strident, Rae assumed an almost statesman-like attitude. He’d used up most of the venom early in the campaign. Now he didn’t need it.” The loss ended Peterson's political career. He announced his resignation as Liberal leader on the night of the election. ==Later career==