Ontario?s premiers were long thought of as having a passion for kissing only babies, but suddenly are blossoming as symbols of sex. The traditional image of premiers used to be men ? there has never been a woman ? in dark suits and sexless as the statues outside the legislature.
But Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty has been rated by a British magazine among the ?hotties? in world politics.
His wife, Terri, also has called him ?the sexiest man in Ontario,? and revealed when he is away the last thing he does at night is phone her.
He also reads her poetry, and he wrote a poem saying how much he appreciates her. Here is one politician trying to write something more memorable than legislation to improve tile drainage.
Mike Harris, Progressive Conservative premier until he stepped down in 2002, also boosted premiers? reputation as romantics when he invited 150 friends to his home for a barbecue and announced he was marrying attractive blonde Laura Maguire, his companion for several years, and the ceremony was performed on the lawn.
It was his third marriage. After his second marriage broke up while he was premier, he was seen quickly with another attractive blonde, a former TV anchor, whom he even took on an official foreign tour.
Harris, tall and burly, has a craggy face reminiscent of the late actor John Wayne. He also ran the province for seven years, was sometimes admired for being decisive and had vacations with fishing buddies including a former American president, which gives him an aura of power that adds to his appeal.
Ernie Eves, Conservative premier briefly after Harris, split from his wife while finance minister and became what he called the ?life partner? of Isabel Bassett, a photogenic former TV commentator turned MPP and minister.
When Eves ran for party leader and in a general election, he took her everywhere and they never made any attempt to hide their relationship.
It was something totally new in traditionally straitlaced Ontario ? a premier asking for support with his common-law wife beside him.
Eves lost the election, but for many other reasons than his romantic status, and the couple left an image as being dignified and devoted, composed in defeat.
A new biography of John Robarts, Conservative premier from 1961-71, presents a picture of passion and tragedy previously only hinted at.
It had been fairly well known Robarts did not get along well with his first wife, who preferred to stay home in London. He spent a lot of time in
nightclubs, was suspected of having affairs, after retiring married a woman 28 years his junior. A few years later, he suffered several strokes and shot himself.
An attractive young woman reporter once told this writer Robarts pinched her bottom during an interview, but she did not want this made public. The news media in those days were wary of discussing politicians? sex lives.
The biography describes how he met his young, second wife when he introduced himself to her in a restaurant, which shows him to have been a politician of rare enterprise, and wrote romantic letters to ?my dearest Kasia.?
Robarts?s physical powers including his ability to have sex were diminished by his strokes and it was a reason he killed himself.
David Peterson, Liberal premier from 1985-90, was the first premier whose love life was discussed publicly. His actress wife, Shelley, described his putting flowered sheets on the bed for their honeymoon. A newspaper called him a ?lean, mean, sexy machine.?
Earlier premiers must have had some associations with sex somewhere in their lives ? Conservative William Davis had five children, but it was not the sort of thing people talked about.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen?s Park press gallery.
