Premier of Ontario

The premier of Ontario (French: premier ministre de l'Ontario) is the head of government of Ontario. Under the Westminster system, the premier governs with the confidence of a majority the elected Legislative Assembly; as such, the premier typically sits as a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and leads the largest party or a coalition of parties. As first minister, the premier selects ministers to form the Executive Council (provincial cabinet), and serves as its chair. Constitutionally, the Crown exercises executive power on the advice of the Executive Council, which is collectively responsible to the legislature.

Doug Ford is the 26th and current premier of Ontario. He took office on June 29, 2018, following the 2018 Ontario election where his Progressive Conservative (PC) party won a majority of seats in the Ontario Legislature.

The position of Ontario premier evolved from the role of Joint Premier of Canada for Canada West, with John Sandfield Macdonald, the second-last joint premier of Canada becoming the first prime minister of the province of Ontario, a position that later was renamed to "Premier".

J.S. Macdonald was in office from 1867 to 1871. He was elected from the provincial riding of Cornwall in the first general election of 1867 for the new province of Ontario. In addition to serving as the premier, he was also the provincial attorney general. The longest-serving premier in Ontario history was Oliver Mowat, in office from 1872 to 1896.

The position of premier was formerly changed to "Prime Minister of Ontario" by the government of Mitchell Hepburn after he was elected in 1934 and remained so until the government of Bill Davis formally changed the title back to premier in 1971. However, in French as the prime minister–premier distinction does not exist, the premier is still referred to as premier ministre (masculine) or première ministre (feminine). This directly translates to 'first minister' or 'prime minister' in English, with both the federal and provincial first ministers being styled the same way.

Ontario political trends have been noted as running opposite to the trends of the federal government, with the premier and the prime minister usually coming from different types of parties. For example, in the 21st century, the federal and provincial liberal parties were only jointly in power from 2003 to 2005 and 2015 to 2018, or approximately 5 years out of 21 years cumulatively, and there was no overlap between federal and provincial conservative parties. This trend has held strongly since approximately 1950, despite Ontario being the largest province in Canada.

Most premiers have taken office between the ages of 40 and 60. With the exception of Thomas Laird Kennedy, who was 70 when he served less than a year as an interim party leader, the last premier to become premier outside of the 40-60 age range was Mitchell Hepburn, who was 38 when he became premier in 1934.

Geographically, the premier has been an MPP from Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area, or Ottawa since 2003. Generally however, premiers have come from communities throughout Ontario, including Eastern Ontario, the Lake Huron and Lake Erie coasts, the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area, and some ridings outside of southern Ontario, such as Nipissing and Sault Ste. Marie.