Cunningham was elected to the Ontario legislature for the
riding of
London North in a 1988
by-election. The riding had previously been
Liberal, and bordered on the seat belonging to Liberal
Premier David Peterson; Cunningham's victory made her a rising star in the small Tory
caucus. She ran for the
leadership of the then third-place Conservatives in 1990, losing to
Mike Harris in the party's first
one member, one vote election for leader. She was considered a
Red Tory, but was hurt by comparisons to
Brian Mulroney, Canada's unpopular
Progressive Conservative Prime Minister. Her loss to Harris led to a major shift in the political orientation of the party. Cunningham was re-elected in the
1990 provincial election, which was won by the
New Democratic Party. During the next five years, the Tories developed a series of right-wing policy initiatives which became known as the "
Common Sense Revolution". Cunningham was not a major contributor to this process. She did, however, serve as her party's Deputy Leader and Caucus
Whip from 1990 to 1995. She was easily re-elected in the
1995 provincial election, which the Tories won. While not in the Harris government's inner circle, she was appointed to
cabinet in the minor portfolios of
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and
Minister responsible for Women's Issues. She retained these positions throughout the Harris government's first term. In 1998, she supported
Hugh Segal for the leadership of the
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. In the
provincial election of 1999, Cunningham narrowly defeated
New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP)
Marion Boyd in the redistributed riding of
London North Centre (the Harris government had previously reduced the number of provincial ridings from 130 to 103, forcing many MPPs to run against one another). Following the election, she was promoted to
Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, and retained that portfolio for the next four years. She was also re-appointed as Minister responsible for Women's Issues on February 8, 2001. In 2002, she supported
Ernie Eves to replace Mike Harris as party leader. Cunningham was often criticized for the way her department managed the elimination of
OAC levels from Ontario's high-school system. The decision reduced the standard high-school honours degree program from five years to four, and resulted in a "double cohort" of new university students when the policy first came into effect. University entrance marks were raised to what some considered high levels; for example, the
University of Western Ontario raised their entrance cutoff to an 80% average. Because of this, many students were unable to attend the university of their choice, and poor departmental planning was frequently blamed. She ran for re-election in the
2003 election, but lost to
Deb Matthews by over 6,000 votes in the landslide victory that brought the
Ontario Liberal Party to power.
Cabinet posts ==Later life==