Gerry Phillips

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Gerry Phillips (born September 11, 1940 in London, Ontario) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and serves as Ministry of Government Services in the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Phillips was educated at the University of Western Ontario's School of Business, and worked as a managing consultant before entering public life. He worked in the marketing department of Procter & Gamble, and joined the Canadian Marketing Associates organization in 1970 (becoming its President in 1977). Phillips founded the Sales Development Group in 1979 and the Retail Resource Group in 1982, and also served on the Board of Governors of the Scarborough General Hospital during this period.

Phillips began his political career as a school trustee, serving for a total of eleven years on the Scarborough Board of Education and the Metropolitan Toronto School Board (and eventually becoming chair of both organizations). He also ran for the Ontario legislature as a Liberal in the provincial election of 1975, but lost to Progressive Conservative Tom Wells in Scarborough North by about 3,000 votes.

Phillips was more successful in his second bid for the Ontario legislature. He was easily elected in Scarborough—Agincourt in the provincial election of 1987, defeating his nearest opponent, David Kho of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) by over 12,000 votes. The Liberals won a landslide majority in this election under David Peterson. On September 29, 1987, Phillips was appointed Minister of Citizenship, with responsibility for Race Relations, Multiculturalism and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In August 1989, he was transferred to the Ministry of Labour.

The Liberals were upset by the NDP in the provincial election of 1990, although Phillips was re-elected without difficulty in his own riding. Tory Keith MacNab finished second. In opposition, he held Official Critic portfolios in Health, Finance and Native Affairs. In 1992, he supported Lyn McLeod's successful campaign to become party leader.

The 1995 provincial election was won by the Progressive Conservatives, and Phillips only narrowly won re-election in Agincourt, defeating Keith MacNab by about 2,000 votes. Many suspected that Phillips would run for the party's leadership when Lyn McLeod resigned in 1996, but he declined and supported Gerard Kennedy, who lost to Dalton McGuinty on the final ballot. Phillips was appointed as the party's Deputy Leader in 1998, and we featured prominently in Liberal television advertisements in the 1999 provincial election.

Phillips's own re-election in 1999 was not guaranteed. Despite an endorsement from the right-wing Toronto Sun tabloid newspaper (which usually supports Tory candidates), he came within 3,000 votes of losing to incumbent Tory Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Jim Brown. (The Mike Harris government had previously reduced the number of ridings from 130 to 103, forcing several MPPs to face one another for re-election.) The Progressive Conservatives won re-election across the province, and Phillips remained a leading figure on the opposition benches. In his capacity as Native Affairs Critic, Phillips helped lead the fight for a public inquiry into the 1995 shooting death of protester Dudley George by members of the Ontario Provincial Police.

The Liberal Party won a landslide majority in the 2003 election, and Phillips was re-elected with 61% support in his riding. Under different circumstances, he would have been the logical choice for Finance Minister in the new government. This position, however, was claimed by Greg Sorbara, who had played a prominent organizational role in the party's campaign, and Phillips was instead appointed as Chair of the Management Board.

As Ontario Chair of the Management Board, Phillips was responsible for management of the government's employees, assets and property, as well as control of spending.

In the fall of 2003, Phillips introduced a bill to ban partisan government advertising, a key election commitment of the Liberal Party. The bill called on the Auditor General to review all government advertising to screen out those that promote the electoral interests of the governing party.

Due to possible perceptions of conflict of interest, oversight of the Ontario Securities Commission was transferred from Finance Minister Greg Sorbara to Phillips in the winter of 2004. He has recently called for Canada to adopt a common securities regulator, rather than relying on separate regulation for each province.

In June of 2005, Phillips reached an agreement with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the provincial government's largest union, representing 42,000 employees. This was a marked contrast to the Progressive Conservative governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, which drew strikes from OPSEU in two rounds of bargaining.

After a cabinet shuffle on June 29, 2005, Phillips's portfolio was restructured as the Minister of Government Services. The new Ministry takes on most of the core services of the former Management Board Secretariat, Consumer and Business Services and a large part of the Cabinet Office. During interviews on his new cabinet, Premier McGuinty described the new portfolio as the "Chief Operating Officer of the government."

Although Phillips is regarded as a fiscal conservative and an ally of Ontario's business community, he is also a prominent supporter of cultural diversity (his riding in Scarborough has a large immigrant population). He is also respected by most parliamentarians as a diligent worker and intelligent contributor to the legislative process.

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Preceded by none (district created)

Member of Provincial Parliament for Scarborough—Agincourt 1987–Present

Succeeded by Incumbent

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty
Cabinet Post
Predecessor	Office	Successor
none since 1993	Minister of Government Services (2005–Present)	Incumbent
Special Cabinet Responsibilities
Predecessor	Title	Successor
David Tsubouchi	Chair of the Management Board of Cabinet (2003-2005)	Dwight Duncan