Research and Education
A Fact-based Approach to Understanding the Harris Legacy
The Harris Legacy Project is dedicated to helping public policy practitioners understand the full scope, scale and impact of Harris Era policy changes as well as their possible implications for future policy evolution in Ontario and Canada through a comprehensive research and education agenda
Purpose
The Purpose of The Harris Legacy Project is to conduct research into the legacy of Ontario Premier Mike Harris and the impact of his government's policies and programs on the Canadian people and the Canadian economy, and to disseminate and make public all such research results. In support of this objective, the Project:
- Publishes research works on these topics
- Commissions academics and public policy practitioners to conduct new research into these topics and supports their publication
- Compiles a digitally accessible archive of historical artefacts to support this research work
The First Initiative
During 2021 and 2022, the Harris Legacy Project commissioned a diverse collection of academics, journalists, and public policy practitioners to contribute to a collection of essays covering key policy areas where the Mike Harris-led Government of Ontario had particular impact. That compilation was published by Sutherland House in 2023. Copies of the Harris Legacy: Reflections on a Transformational Premier are available here.
Condensed versions of the essays as well as other research commissioned by THLP can be found – categorized by subject area – in the archive below.
Research on The Harris Legacy
Elected for the first of his two terms as premier of Ontario in 1995, Mike Harris introduced some of the most sweeping reforms the province has ever seen: substantial reductions in spending and taxation as well dramatic changes to welfare, education, health care, municipal affairs, labour relations, energy, the environment, and much more. He altered the way elections were fought, how the provincial government is held accountable, how it works with its counterpart in Ottawa, and on his retirement in 2002 said his only regret was "I wish I had done more… faster." Three decades after the launch of his famous Common Sense Revolution, Mike Harris and his policies still galvanize emotions on all sides of the political spectrum. Despite the controversy surrounding so many of the wide-ranging reforms undertaken by the government of Premier Mike Harris across so many different public policy areas, it is important to appreciate just how few of these changes have been reversed by his successors in the many years since. The City of Toronto was not unmerged. Closed hospitals were not reopened. Province-wide negotiation authority for teaching contracts was not handed back to the eighty-four boards of education. The old monolith of Ontario Hydro was not reconstituted. The coal-burning power plants he began to close have not reopened. The massive expansion of Ontario parkland was not reversed. Reduced welfare compensation was not reinstated. Standardized testing in Grades Three, Six, and Nine remains in place. The Oakridges Moraine is still undeveloped (as of this edition). Privatized highways (e.g., 407ETR) and nuclear plants (e.g., Bruce Power) have not been renationalized. The list goes on….
Suffice it to say that many, if not most, of the fundamental changes implemented during the Harris regime survive and define the Ontario we currently inhabit. It is not an overstatement, based on the evidence accumulated in this collection of essays, to say that...we live in Mike Harris's Ontario today.
The Harris Legacy Project supports an active research and education agenda and encourages continued historical analysis of this transformative time in Ontario (and Canada's) history. In the boxes below, you will find a range of research and commentary across a comprehensive array of public policy areas. Just click on the files below…and learn more.