The sleeves are just as long.
But he was a very popular premier initially.
Of course, as with any government, after time you do find challenges, but he was very popular in 1995 and could not get his preferred candidate elected as Speaker on the secret ballot. After time, things changed. That Speaker resigned after allegations of sexual harassment, so we found the opportunity once again to have another election for a Speaker. It provided us the opportunity again to see a mid-term election of the Speaker, something we don't see, or haven't seen federally, but it provided a mid-term evaluation of an election under a secret ballot.
We were only a couple of years into the term, and the premier still decided that Margaret Marland was his preferred candidate. He privately and publicly let it be known. He advocated on her behalf. Other candidates were still left out of cabinet and were still interested in being the Speaker of the Ontario legislature. Among them were David Tilson, now a colleague of ours here in Ottawa, and Chris Stockwell. There were eight candidates: Derwyn Shea, PC, Gary Leadston, PC, Jack Carroll, PC, Floyd Laughren, NDP, and Gilles Morin, Liberal. It was a fairly large balance as well. Again, it was clear who the preference was.
As well, it took seven ballots to elect the new Speaker, showing a significant amount of diversity of views in that election. Interestingly, not only did the Ontario legislature not elect the premier's preferred choice, but they elected someone who was significantly at odds with the premier, a gentleman by the name of Chris Stockwell, who had a long and acrimonious relationship with Premier Harris. He was not appointed to cabinet in 1995, and he took it quite personally. He was quite despondent and was publicly known to criticize the premier on a number of fronts, most controversially on the subject of the Karla Homolka plea bargain deal, a terrible sex crime murder in Ontario where the two governments, the NDP and the Conservatives, accepted a plea bargain deal. He was very publicly critical of the premier. He criticized the premier publicly on his change to MPP pension plans. In fact, the media said that the only reason he ran was to publicly spite the premier.
Chris Stockwell was elected as the Speaker of the Ontario legislature. The MPP for Hamilton West at the time, a certain Mr. Christopherson, was caught in Hansard yelling out as a heckle—