McGuinty ministry
cabinet of Ontario, 2003–2013
The McGuinty ministry was the cabinet (formally the Executive Council of Ontario) Government of Ontario, a province in Canada, that was in office from October 23, 2003 to February 11, 2013. It was led by Ontario's 24th premier, Dalton McGuinty. The ministry consisted of members of the Ontario Liberal Party, which commanded for the first eight year a majority, and it in the final one-and-a-half year a minority of the seats in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The McGuinty ministry entered office following the 2003 Ontario general election, replacing the previous Progressive Conservative Eves ministry. The ministry governed through all of the 38th and 39th Parliaments of Ontario, as well as the first sixteen months of the 40th Parliament of Ontario. After governing with a comfortable majority for eight years, the McGuinty ministry was significantly weakened following the 2011 election as it entered bargaining season with various public sector unions while under increased fiscal constraints in 2012. McGuinty's October 2012 surprised announcement of his pending retirement commenced the curtail call for his ministry and kicked start the 2012-13 Ontario Liberal leadership contest that led to the formation of the successor Wynne ministry in February 2013.
Overview
Place in history
The formation of the McGuinty ministry kick-started a fifteen-year period of Liberal administration in Ontario. It accomplished several feats that drew comparisons to the nineteenth-century Liberal Mowat ministry, the longest-tenured ministry in Ontario's history, having lasted twenty-three years and nine months, and placed the McGuinty ministry as among the most successful ministries in Ontario's history.
In office for nine years and three months, the McGuinty ministry was the second longest-tenured Liberal ministry in Ontario's history, and ranks sixth among all Ontario ministries, being one day shorter than the fifth-ranked Robarts ministry.
“McGuinty ministry” enters the record as cabinet of Ontario, 2003–2013. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what McGuinty, ministry and cabinet can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“McGuinty ministry” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, McGuinty, ministry and cabinet provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q130749182. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2013, 2011 and 2012.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “McGuinty ministry”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow McGuinty ministry primary sources, McGuinty ministry archive and McGuinty research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “McGuinty ministry”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “McGuinty ministry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.