1987 Ontario general election

The 1987 Ontario general election was held on September 10, 1987, to elect members of the 34th Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The governing Ontario Liberal Party, led by Premier David Peterson, was returned to power with their first majority government in half a century, and the second-largest majority government in the province's history. Peterson had successfully managed to govern with a minority in the Legislature by obtaining the co-operation of the Ontario New Democratic Party, led by Bob Rae, in a confidence and supply agreement. It was through the NDP's support that Peterson was able to form a government, even though the Progressive Conservative Party had won a slightly larger number of seats in the previous election.

The PC Party, led by Larry Grossman, campaigned on a platform of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Its support continued to slide, as voters opted for the change that the Liberal-NDP arrangement provided, with Grossman losing his own seat. The PCs fell to 16 seats and third place in the legislature, their worst showing in an election in half a century.

The NDP was unable to convince the bulk of voters that it should be given credit for the success of the Liberal government that it had supported. It nevertheless did receive more votes and a larger proportion of the vote than in the previous election, although the party lost six seats due to the first-past-the-post electoral system. The party became the Official Opposition for the second time in its history.

Expansion of the Legislature

An Act was passed in 1986, providing for the Legislative Assembly to increase from 125 members to 130. The following changes were made:

Opinion polls

During campaign period

During the 33rd Parliament of Ontario

Results

|style="text-align:left;"|David Peterson | 130 || 48 || 95 || 47 || 1,788,214 || 410,249 || 47.34% || 9.44

|style="text-align:left;"|Bob Rae | 130 || 25 || 19 || 6 || 970,813 || 105,306 || 25.70% || 1.90

|style="text-align:left;"|Larry Grossman | 130 || 52 || 16 || 36 || 931,473 || 411,571 || 24.66% || 12.28

|style="text-align:left;"|Donald Pennell | 36 || – || – || – || 48,110 || 48,110 || 1.27% ||New

| || 19 || – || – || – || 13,632 || 12,096 || 0.36% || 0.35

|style="text-align:left;"|Kaye Sargent | 25 || – || – || – || 13,514 || 683 || 0.36% || –

|style="text-align:left;"|Robert Metz | 9 || – || – || – || 4,735 || 3,152 || 0.13% || 0.08

|style="text-align:left;"|Gordon Massie | 9 || – || – || – || 3,422 || 274 || 0.09% || 0.01

| || 7 || – || – || – || 3,398 || 1,947 || 0.09% || 0.06 |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total |495||125 ! " colspan="2"|130 ! " colspan="2"|3,777,311 ! " colspan="2"| 100.00% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 26,658 | 224 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Voter turnout | 3,803,969 | 141,836 | 62.70 | 1.15 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered electors | 6,067,378 | 117,083 | colspan="2"|