The Big Blue Machine was a nickname for the group of strategists and advisors to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in Ontario, Canada, in the 1970s and 1980s. The moniker was coined by journalist Claire Hoy of the Toronto Star in April 1971. It has most frequently been applied to Bill Davis' term in office from 1971 to 1985 where his Red Tory government won election after election by promising moderate, well-run government. During that time, the Progressive Conservatives often ran to the left of the Liberals. Davis' period was only a portion of an unprecedented 42 consecutive years of Tory rule in Ontario, and sometimes earlier organizations are also referred to by the Big Blue Machine moniker.
Noted members included Alan Eagleson, William Kelly, Patrick Kinsella, Gerald Nori, Eddie Goodman, Maurice Hughes, Norm Atkins, and Ross DeGeer, John Thompson. The party workers were often accused of being dismissive of the Members of Provincial Parliament they helped to elect, and would sometimes draft legislation without any input from the Tory caucus or cabinet.
The Big Blue Machine lent their expertise to the British Columbia Social Credit Party, enabling the latter to win the election there. The subsequent provincial budget, known as the Restraint Budget, embraced neo-conservative economic policies and concomitant attacks on institutions and issues sacred to the left, touching off the Solidarity Crisis, which nearly led to a general strike in the fall of that year. This group of exported advisors was known as the Baby Blue Machine but the political machine did not last since B.C. Premier Bill Bennett retired in 1986, although Patrick Kinsella stayed on to help engineer the takoever of the reborn BC Liberals from Gordon Wilson and his replacement by current Premier Gordon Campbell. Kinsella was campaign manager in the 2001 and 2005 general elections. His involvement in the sale of BC Rail has raised questions about his apparent lobbying for CN Rail, the purchaser of the crown corporation, at the same time as consulting for the provincial government, the seller. Kinsella has denied the allegations and threatened to sue NDP leader Carole James, and also raised objections to presentation of material concerning his activities in the pre-trial hearings concerning influence-peddling and money laundering by ministerial aides in relation to the sale. The Liberals had lost the 1996 election due to many regions and stakeholders in the province being outraged by the idea, and came to power in 2001 because they promised not to sell it, though immediately set about doing so after the election.
The 1985 leadership convention was the beginning of the end for the Big Blue Machine's influence, as they endorsed Larry Grossman, who was defeated by the more conservative Frank Miller. Under Miller's leadership, the PC Party finally lost power in the 1985 election. Although Grossman won the party leadership after Miller's resignation later in that year, the Big Blue Machine was again marginalized as he took the party to the right in the 1987 snap election.
In the 1990 leadership convention, Dianne Cunningham ran as the choice of the establishment and the Big Blue Machine. She was defeated by Mike Harris in what some saw as an upset, as Cunningham's Red Tory leanings associated her with the unpopular federal Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney. Harris represented the party's right-wing and was not associated with the Mulroney government in the minds of most voters.
Harris embodied a more conservative style, promoting tax cuts and a shift toward the American model of free markets that differed significantly from centrist governance of Bill Davis and the Big Blue Machine. His "Common Sense Revolution" agenda returned the Tories to power in the 1995 provincial election. Many Conservatives MPPs under Harris were openly dismissive of Davis-era spending policies, and frequently highlighted the differences between Davis and Harris on policy issues. Harris' PC's won two elections, though Harris' spending cuts resulted in frequent clashes with public unions and health care waits in Ontario increased. Bad publicity increased about health care waiting periods, and bad publicity from the deaths in Walkerton caused Harris's popularity to decline in his second term. The deaths of seven people in Walkerton, Ontario,while due heavily to Stan Koebel falsifying water safety records, also was found to be partly caused by Mike Harris' deregulation of water quality testing and cuts to the Ministry of the Environment. This in addition to negative publicity about hospital closings for health care restructuring caused Harris and the right-wing of the PC's to become unpopular. The Ontario PC's (led by Ernie Eves, since Harris had stepped down) were defeated in a landslide by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals.