Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election, 1990
| Date | May 12, 1990 |
|---|---|
| Convention |
CNE Coliseum, Toronto, Ontario |
| Resigning leader | Larry Grossman |
| Won by | Mike Harris |
| Ballots | 1 |
| Candidates | 2 |
| Entrance Fee | ? |
| Spending limit | ? |
Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership conventions
The 1990 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership election was a leadership convention held in May 1990 to elect a new leader for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Two candidates vied for the leadership - Mike Harris and Dianne Cunningham. Using a novel voting system used due to party funding constraints, Harris was elected over Cunningham in a single ballot by a margin of 7,175 points to 5,825 points.
The convention was held to replace Larry Grossman who resigned following the 1987 provincial election in which he lost his seat and saw his party, which had ruled the province for 42 years until 1985, fall to third place. Andy Brandt served as interim leader for three years leading to the 1990 convention.
The Progressive Conservatives had been led by Red Tories William G. Davis from 1971 until 1985 and conservative elements in the party, particularly in the youth, believed that the moderate positions of the party leadership had led to its 1985 defeat. Their third-place finish in 1987 under Grossman, also a Red Tory, buttressed the argument that the party needed to move to the right. Conversely, the leader of the Conservatives during their fatal 1985 provincial election was Frank Miller, perceived as a right wing conservative who eschewed the Red Toryism of Davis and Grossman.
The 1990 leadership vote was the first in which the Tories used a weighted One Member One Vote system instead of the traditional delegated leadership convention. In the weighted OMOV system each riding of the 130 ridings was assigned 100 points for a total of 13,000 points. Members in each riding would vote and the total for each candidate would be represented by a proportion out of 100 (effectively a percentage). The disadvantage to the system was that ridings with many voting members would be treated as equal to those ridings with few voting members. The candidate with the most points province wide would be the winner.
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