Everything about Dennis Timbrell totally explained
Dennis Roy Timbrell (
November 13,
1946—) is a
politician in
Ontario,
Canada. He served in the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1987, and was a
cabinet minister in the governments of
William Davis and
Frank Miller.
Timbrell was born in
Kingston, Ontario, and educated at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Scarborough
(External Link
) and
York University in
Toronto. He worked as a teacher before entering provincial politics, and served as an
alderman in
North York from January 1970 until
September 1,
1972.
Timbrell contested
1971 provincial election as a candidate of the
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and won election in the Toronto constituency of
Don Mills. He was re-elected without difficulty in the campaigns of
1975,
1977,
1981 and
1985.
He became a
minister without portfolio in Davis's government on
February 26,
1974, and was named as
Minister of Energy on
July 18,
1975. On
February 3,
1977, he was promoted to
Minister of Health. After serving in this high-profile position for five years, he became Ontario's
Minister of Agriculture and Food on
February 13,
1982. Many believe Timbrell was already planning a leadership bid to replace Davis, and wanted to build a support base among rural voters.
Following Davis's resignation as PC leader and as
premier, Timbrell sought the party leadership at the January 1985
leadership convention. He positioned himself as a centre-right candidate, further to the right of
Red Tory rivals
Larry Grossman and
Roy McMurtry, but not as far to the right as Frank Miller. Timbrell was the only candidate to favour eliminating rent controls during the campaign. His supporters included
Keith Norton,
Leo Bernier,
Margaret Birch,
Robert Eaton,
Gordon Dean,
Bob Welch and
Norman Sterling.
Timbrell placed second on the first ballot, but was eliminated when he fell to third place on the second ballot, six votes behind Grossman who had the backing of McMurtry's campaign. Many believe that Timbrell would have defeated Miller on the final ballot, and it has been suggested that some Miller supporters voted for Grossman to prevent him from advancing. Lou Parsons, a senior Miller adviser, later acknowledged, "We wouldn't have won it against Dennis [...] Our winning strategy was always to be against Larry ... and in the end we were lucky". (Rosemary Speirs,
Out of the Blue, Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1986, p. 81.)
Timbrell reluctantly endorsed Grossman after the results were confirmed by a recount. He however didn't bring enough delegates on the third ballot and that resulted in Miller's victory. He was retained in Miller's cabinet as
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing with responsibility for
Women's Issues.
The Progressive Conservative Party under Miller's leadership was reduced to a narrow
minority government in the
1985 election. Following a cabinet shuffle on
May 17, 1985, Timbrell was demoted to
Provincial Secretary for Resource Development, also retaining responsibility for Women's Issues. He accomplished little in this position before Miller's government was defeated in the house in June 1985. In opposition, Timbrell served as his party's critic for Education and Women's Issues.
Miller resigned as leader, and the party called another leadership convention for November 1985. This contest was an extremely divisive struggle between Timbrell and Grossman, which exposed deep divisions in the party. A third candidate,
Alan Pope, drew attention to the animosity between the candidates with his slogan, "Don't choose sides, choose Pope".
Alan Eagleson was a co-chairman of Timbrell's campaign.
In this leadership race, Timbrell announced he wouldn't support the full funding of Catholic schools (which had previously been agreed to by all parties in the legislature) unless amendments were put forward guaranteeing entry to non-Catholic teachers and students. Norman Sterling, an inveterate opponent of Catholic school funding, derided Timbrell's position as opportunistic and crossed over to Grossman. Timbrell's change of position may have turned away other potential supporters as well.
Pope finished third on the opening ballot and some believed that he could have given Timbrell a second-ballot victory over Grossman, though Pope chose not to endorse either side. Grossman defeated Timbrell on the second ballot by nineteen votes, effectively ending Timbrell's career in provincial politics. He didn't seek re-election in 1987.
Timbrell served as president of the Ontario Hospital Association from 1992 to 1995 and received $583,000 when the OHA sold its Ontario Blue Cross subsidiary.
In 1997 and again in 2000, Timbrell campaigned for the
Canadian House of Commons as a federal
Progressive Conservative candidate in the eastern Ontario riding of
Prince Edward—Hastings. In the
1997 election, Timbrell placed second to
Liberal Lyle Vanclief, with 21.5% of the vote. In the
2000 election, Timbrell placed third, behind Vanclief and a
Canadian Alliance candidate, with 20.3% of the vote.
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