The Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police force in the Canadian province of Ontario.
The first head of a provincial police force was John Wilson Murray, who was a provincial constable appointed to the position of Detective for the Province of Ontario.[1] In 1897, Murray was joined by two detectives under his command. In 1909, the Ontario Provincial Police Force was formally created consisting of 45 constables under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers (Rogers began as a detective under Murray).[2] In 1921, the force was reorganized as the OPP with the passage of the Provincial Police Force Act and Major General Harry M. Cawthra-Elliot was appointed to the newly created position of Commissioner.[3]
Since 1939 most OPP Commissioners have been police officers and some promoted within the OPP.
| Years Served | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1921–1922 | Major General Harry Macintyre Cawthra-Elliot (1867–1949)[4] | Cawthra-Elliot was career military officer and married into the Cawthra family |
| 1922–1939 | Major General Arthur Victor Seymour Williams C.M.G. (1867–1949)[5] | Williams was the second career military officer to head the OPP, he was previously an Inspector with the North-West Mounted Police |
| 1939–1953 | William H. Stringer (1886–1953) | Stringer was career OPP officer, the first to be promoted within the force[6] |
| 1953–1958 | Edwin V. McNeill (1896–1962) | McNeill was an OPP Inspector and served briefly as interim Windsor Police Chief |
| 1958–1963 | Wilfred Hamilton Clark (1904-????) | |
| 1963–1973 | Eric Hamilton Silk, QC (1908–2004)[7] | Silk was the first civilian head of OPP; he was career civil servant (counsel with the Office of the Attorney General of Ontario) |
| 1973–1981 | Harold Hopkins Graham (1916–2001) | Graham was a career officer with the OPP; former Inspector, Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner |
| 1981–1983 | James Laird Erskine (1916–2005) | Erskine was former head of OPP fraud squad and Deputy Commissioner |
| 1983–1988 | Robert Archibald (Archie) Ferguson | Ferguson was 37 year OPP veteran (1951–1988) [8] |
| 1988–1998 | Thomas Bernard O'Grady (b. 1936) | O'Grady was a 36 year veteran of the OPP (1962–1998) [9] |
| 1998–2006 | Gwen M. Boniface (b. 1956) | Boniface was a career OPP officer |
| 2006–2010 | Julian Fantino (b. 1942) [10] | Fantino was a Metro Toronto Police veteran; later served as Chief of Police of London, York Region and Toronto; head of EMO (Deputy Minister) |
| 2010- | Christopher D. Lewis (b. 1953) | Lewis is a former Deputy Commissioner and OPP veteran[11] |