Al Leach

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Allan F. Leach (born December 9, 1935 in Toronto, Ontario) is a former transportation manager and politician in Ontario, Canada. In the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he was the head of GO Transit and later the Toronto Transit Commission. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 1999, and was a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris.

Before entering politics, Leach spent a number of years as a manager in the Department of Highways of the Province of Ontario. He later moved to GO Transit, and was GO's Managing Director from 1977 to 1987. He was hired as Chief General Manager of the Toronto Transit Commission in 1987, and served in that position until resigning in early 1995 to seek political office. After leaving the TTC, he was often criticized for doing little to prevent the TTC's infrastructure from falling into a state of disrepair, although it some have argued that the TTC was hurt by funding cuts and previous general managers had passed the problem onto him.

Leach was elected to the provincial legislation in the 1995 Ontario election, narrowly defeating Liberal incumbent Tim Murphy and New Democrat Brent Hawkes in the downtown Toronto riding of St. David—St. George. His victory was generally considered an upset. In 1995, the Progressive Conservative Party's electoral strength was concentrated in rural areas and the commuter regions around Toronto -- Leach's victory in an urbane, downtown riding was atypical of his party's showing elsewhere. Many consider Leach's victory to have been the result of a vote split between the Liberal and NDP candidates: he received less than 34% of the riding's vote, outpolling Murphy by only 337 votes and Hawkes by 990.

Also, St. David—St. George is home to the largest gay community in Ontario, and Leach was generally regarded as having a poor relationship with this group. In 1993, he vetoed an already-signed contract granting advertising space for gay counselling services on Toronto's subway system. He defended his decision saying, "We have a number of passengers who would be offended by this. And I’m one of them."

Leach was appointed as the Harris government's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on June 26, 1995, and held this position until the 1999 provincial election. In this capacity, Leach presided over a number of unpopular measures, including amalgamating the City of Toronto with five of its suburbs, ending rent control, and cutting provincial grants to the metropolitain region. He also presided over market value reassessment for private property in downtown Toronto, after having promised not to do so in the campaign. These decisions reduced Leach's popularity in the Toronto area.

Former old Toronto mayor John Sewell emerged as a leader of the anti-amalgamation forces in Toronto, and threatened to challenge Leach as an independent candidate in the 1999 election. Leach retired from politics after a single term.

After the 1999 election, the Harris government appointed Leach to the Toronto Police Services Board, and also served as vice-chair of the GO Transit Board. In 2004, he was the only member of the latter board to be removed from office after the Ontario Liberal Party formed a majority government.

Preceded by:
Tim Murphy

MPP for Toronto Centre—Rosedale (1995-1999)

Succeeded by:
George Smitherman