In 1967, Miller was elected as a member of the
Bracebridge town council, serving until 1970. In the
1971 Ontario provincial election, he ran for election to the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario in
Muskoka as a
Progressive Conservative, and was elected. He was re-elected in the
1975,
1977,
1981, and
1985 elections. He joined the
cabinet of Premier
William Davis on February 26, 1974 as
Minister of Health. He planned to close a number of small hospitals and consolidate urban services after the 1975 election, but withdrew in the face of cabinet opposition. He suffered a heart attack during this period. Miller became
Minister of Natural Resources following a cabinet shuffle on February 3, 1977. On August 16, 1978, he was promoted to
Treasurer and Minister of Economics. As Treasurer, he opposed the Davis government's
Suncor purchase in 1981 and considered resigning over the issue. After another shuffle on July 6, 1983, he was named
Minister of Industry and Trade. In 1983, he gained notoriety for wearing a loud
tartan jacket to the 1983 budget ceremony. He was caricatured by some reporters as a symbol of Ontario's rural past, and seemed out of step with generational and demographic changes in the province. Senior
party organizer Hugh Segal later acknowledged that the jacket probably alienated many new voters.
Party leadership and Premier When Davis retired, Miller defeated
Larry Grossman,
Roy McMurtry and
Dennis Timbrell for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party in its
January 1985 leadership convention. Davis and his predecessor
John Robarts were considered
Red Tories and ran relatively progressive administrations that increased public investment and expanded the public sector. Under their watch, the Ontario Tories were often seen to be running left of the
Liberals. Miller, on the other hand, was more typical of the party's base of social conservatives from Ontario's rural areas. When Davis officially stepped down on February 8, 1985, Miller became Premier. Miller's victory created some divisions in the Progressive Conservative Party, and he had difficulty keeping order among senior party staff. In February, 1985, Miller announced his first cabinet with a record 33 members including 7
Ministers without portfolio. The size of the cabinet belied Miller's rhetoric of a lean, efficient government.
David Peterson called it the "fattest, most bloated Cabinet in the history of this province".
1985 election Miller's Progressive Conservatives had a significant lead in the polls of around 55% (compared to the two opposition parties, in the low to mid 20s) when he called an
election for May 1985, but his campaign was considered disastrous. He elicited controversy when he refused to agree to a television debate with Liberal leader
David Peterson and
New Democratic Party leader
Bob Rae. This decision is thought to have hurt Miller's standing with the public. His situation was also made more difficult by Davis's decision to extend public funding for
Catholic Separate Schools to
grade 13, a decision that had been left to Miller to implement. Although the policy was supported by all parties in the legislature, it was unpopular with some in the Tories' traditional rural
Protestant base. Many PC voters were so upset that they simply stayed home on election day because of this issue. In the election, the Liberals won a narrow plurality of the popular vote. However, at the time rural areas were still overrepresented in the Legislative Assembly, enabling Miller to win reelection. However, the Tories were cut down to a
minority government, in which the Tories had only four more seats than the Liberals and were 11 seats short of a majority. The NDP, with 25 seats, held the
balance of power.
Minority government and defeat After several weeks of negotiations with both parties, the NDP signed an agreement with Peterson to support a Liberal minority government. As per this agreement, Rae introduced a
Motion of No Confidence in the Miller government, which carried. As a result of the Liberal-NDP accord,
Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird asked Peterson to form a government. Miller formally resigned as Premier on June 26, 1985; ending 42 years of Progressive Conservative rule over Ontario. Miller resigned as Progressive Conservative leader soon afterward. He was replaced by
Larry Grossman in a November
1985 leadership convention. Miller formally resigned as party leader and
Leader of the Opposition in early 1986. He played only a minor role in the legislature after this time, and did not seek re-election in 1987.
Cabinet positions ==Later life==