Canadian politician
Kenneth Ross Stevenson (born October 1, 1942) is a former politician in Ontario , Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1987, and was briefly a cabinet minister in the government of Frank Miller . He later served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993. Stevenson was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party .
Background
Stevenson was born in Lindsay, Ontario . He was educated at the University of Guelph and Iowa State University , earning a Ph.D. He worked as a farmer, and was a professor at the University of Guelph before entering provincial politics.
Provincial politics
He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election , winning an easy victory in Durham—York .[ 1] For the next four years, he served as a backbench supporter of the provincial Progressive Conservative administrations led by Bill Davis and Frank Miller. He was re-elected in the 1985 election , in which the PCs under Miller were reduced to an unstable minority government .[ 2] Stevenson was named Minister of Agriculture and Food on May 17, 1985, but accomplished little in this portfolio before Miller's government was defeated in the legislature.[ 3]
In opposition, Stevenson served as his party's critic for Agriculture and Food. He was defeated in the 1987 election , losing to Liberal Party candidate Bill Ballinger by 482 votes.[ 4]
Cabinet positions
Federal politics
He then turned to federal politics, and was elected to the Canadian House of Commons for Durham in the 1988 federal election .[ 5] He served as a backbench supporter of the Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell administrations over the next five years. The Progressive Conservatives were badly defeated in the 1993 federal election , and Stevenson finished third in his bid for re-election behind Liberal candidate Alex Shepherd .[ 6]
Later life
Stevenson later became director of strategic programs at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology . In 2003, he supported the federal Progressive Conservative Party's merger with the Canadian Alliance to create the Conservative Party of Canada . He is currently a Professor within the School of Science and Engineering Technology at Durham College .
References
^ Canadian Press (20 March 1981). "Winds of change, sea of security" . The Windsor Star . Windsor, Ontario. p. 22. Retrieved 1 April 2014 .
^ "Results of vote in Ontario election". The Globe and Mail . 3 May 1985. p. 13.
^ "The new Cabinet". The Globe and Mail . 18 May 1985. p. 11.
^ "Results from individual ridings". The Windsor Star . 11 September 1987. p. F2.
^ "Decision '88: The vote". The Globe and Mail . 22 November 1988. pp. C4–C5.
^ "Results may be more complete than as published Riding-by-riding results from across Canada Ontario Algoma". Toronto Star . 26 October 1993. p. B10.
External links