Leader of the Official Opposition (Ontario)

Leader of Official Opposition in Ontario
Chef de l'opposition officielle en Ontario
Incumbent Marit Stiles since February 4, 2023
Member of	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Term length	While leader of the largest party not in government
Inaugural holder	Edward Blake
Formation	1869 (1869)

In the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the leader of the Official Opposition (French: chef de l'opposition officielle) is the leader of the largest political party (or group of parties) not in government and typically the second-largest party. The position is referred more formally as the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition (French: chef de la loyale opposition de Sa Majesté); under the Westminster system, while the parliamentary opposition opposes the incumbent government, it remains loyal to the Crown and thus to Canada.

Marit Stiles has served as the leader of the Official Opposition since February 4, 2023. She leads the New Democratic Party (NDP), which has held the second largest number of seats in the Legislative Assembly since the 2018 provincial election.

History

Ontario's first Leader of the Official Opposition was Edward Blake of the Ontario Liberal Party who held the position from 1869 until 1871 when he became Premier of Ontario (Archibald McKellar had previously led the Liberal Party in the legislature for two years, but was not formally recognized as opposition leader). Ten Leaders were Premier before after they served this post.

• Archibald McKellar (Liberal) 1867-1869 was not formally recognized as opposition leader, but led the Liberal Party in the legislature.

List of opposition leaders

	Leader	Party	Took office	Left office
	Edward Blake	Liberal	December 1869	December 1871
	Matthew Crooks Cameron	Conservative	December 1871	1878
	William Ralph Meredith		October 1878	October 1894
	George Marter		October 1894	April 1896
	James Whitney		April 1896	January 1905
	George William Ross	Liberal	February 1905	January 1907
	George Graham		January 1907	August 1907
	Alexander Grant MacKay		August 1907	1911
	Newton Rowell		December 1911	1917
	William Proudfoot		February 1918	June 1919
	Hartley Dewart		June 1919	October 1921
	Wellington Hay		March 1922	June 1923
	William Sinclair 1 2		August 1923	June 1934
	George Henry	Conservative	July 1935	December 1938
	George Drew	Conservative/Progressive Conservative	1939	1943
	Ted Jolliffe	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation	August 1943	June 1945
	Farquhar Oliver	Liberal	July 1945	June 1948
	Ted Jolliffe (second time)	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation	July 1948	November 1951
	Farquhar Oliver3 (second time)	Liberal	1951	April 1958
	John Wintermeyer		April 1958	August 1963
	Farquhar Oliver 4 (third time)		October 1963	September 1964
	Andy Thompson		September 1964	November 1966
	Robert Nixon		February 1967	September 18, 1975
	Stephen Lewis	New Democratic	October 28, 1975	April 29, 1977
	Stuart Smith	Liberal	June 1977	September 1981
	Robert Nixon5 (second time)		January 25, 1982	February 21, 1982
	David Peterson		February 1982	June 1985
	Frank Miller	Progressive Conservative	1985	1985
	Larry Grossman		1985	1987
	Bob Rae	New Democratic	1987	1990
	Robert Nixon 6 (third time)	Liberal	November 20, 1990	July 31, 1991
	Murray Elston 7		1991	1991
	Jim Bradley 8		1991	1992
	Lyn McLeod		1992	1996
	Dalton McGuinty		1996	2003
	Ernie Eves	Progressive Conservative	2003	2004
	Bob Runciman 9		2004	2005
	John Tory		2005	2007
	Bob Runciman10 (second time)		2007	2009
	Tim Hudak		2009	2014
	Jim Wilson11		2014	2015
	Patrick Brown		2015	2018
	Vic Fedeli12		2018	2018
	Andrea Horwath	New Democratic	2018	2022
	Peter Tabuns13		2022	2023
	Marit Stiles		2023	present

¹ The Liberals were recognized as the Official Opposition following the 1923 election by the governing Conservatives, despite the fact that the United Farmers of Ontario had more seats. According to historian Peter Oliver, this was an arbitrary decision without basis in precedent or law. Conservative Premier G. Howard Ferguson used as justification an announcement by UFO general secretary James J. Morrison that the UFO would be withdrawing from party politics, though Oliver argues that this was facetious logic. UFO parliamentary leader Manning Doherty protested the decision, but to no avail. (source: Peter Oliver, G. Howard Ferguson: Ontario Tory, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), p. 158.)

² From 1930, the Liberal Party was led by Mitchell Hepburn, but Sinclair continued as Leader of the Opposition as Hepburn did not seek a seat in the legislature until the 1934 general election which made him Premier.

³ Until 1954, the Liberals were led from outside the legislature by Walter Thomson with Oliver as acting Leader of the Opposition. Oliver led the party in his own right (for a second time) from 1954 until 1958.

⁴ Interim Liberal leader following the personal defeat of Wintermeyer in the 1963 provincial election until Thompson's election as leader.

⁵ Interim Liberal leader of the party following the resignation of Stuart Smith.

⁶ Interim Liberal leader of the party following the personal defeat of Premier David Peterson in the 1990 election.

⁷ Elston became interim Liberal leader when Nixon resigned from the legislature to accept a federal appointment. Elston stepped down in November when he decided to be a candidate at the Liberal leadership convention.

⁸ Interim Liberal leader between resignation of Elston and election of McLeod.

⁹ John Tory was chosen as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party on September 18, 2004, but did not hold a seat in the legislature. On September 28 the party announced that Bob Runciman would act as interim PC leader until Tory entered the legislature. Tory was elected to represent Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey on March 17, 2005, and was sworn in as an MPP and leader of the opposition on March 29, 2005.

¹⁰ As Ontario PC leader John Tory did not win a seat in the 2007 election, Runciman served as Leader of the Opposition in the legislature. (Tory had been running in the Don Valley West riding.) After spending more than a year outside the legislature, Tory sought a seat in the March 5, 2009 by-election in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock. He lost this by-election, and thereafter resigned as party leader. Runciman served as interim party leader as well as opposition leader until Hudak was chosen as the party leadership convention.

¹¹ Wilson served as interim leader of the Progressive Conservative party following the resignation of Tim Hudak and continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition after Patrick Brown became party leader on May 9, 2015, until September when Brown won a seat in the legislature through a by-election.

¹² Vic Fedeli was chosen interim leader of the PC Party by caucus on January 26, 2018, one day after Patrick Brown resigned due to allegations of sexual misconduct. He continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition after Doug Ford became party leader on March 10, 2018, as Ford did not have a seat in the legislature.

¹³ Peter Tabuns was chosen as interim leader by the NDP caucus on June 28, 2022, following the resignation of Andrea Horwath.

List of deputy opposition leaders

Deputy Leader	Took office	Left office	Notes
Sean Conway	March 9, 1982	March 25, 1985
	September 17, 1991	December 19, 1996
Sandra Pupatello	June 6, 1999	September 2, 2003
Elizabeth Witmer	October 23, 2003	July 27, 2009
Christine Elliott	July 27, 2009	August 28, 2015
Steve Clark	September 11, 2015	May 8, 2018	Serving together
Sylvia Jones
Sara Singh	August 23, 2018	Incumbent	Serving together
John Vanthof