Douglas Wiseman

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Douglas Jack Wiseman (born July 21, 1930 in Smiths Falls, Ontario) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Progressive Conservative from 1971 to 1990, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Bill Davis.

Wiseman was educated at Smiths Falls College, and worked as a farmer and small businessman. He developed a prominent cow-calf business in the region, and later opened a chain of discount shoe stores. Wiseman was also a public school board chair, and a trustee of St. Paul's United Church in Perth, Ontario.

He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1971 provincial election, gaining an easy victory in the eastern Ontario constituency of Lanark. He was returned in the 1975 election, and was named parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health on November 19, 1975.

Wiseman was appointed as a minister without portfolio in Davis's government on January 21, 1978, and on August 30, 1979 was promoted to Minister of Government Services. His tenure in office proved to be unexpectedly controversial. Some senior government officials such as Hugh Segal claimed he was ineffective in cabinet, contributing almost nothing to policy debates. Within the Department of Government Services, some considered him an improvement over the previous minister, Lorne Henderson. Wiseman soon developed a serious rivalry with Deputy Minister Alan Gordon, a confidante of the premier who attained notoriety for allegedly accepting untendered contracts without the minister's approval.

Wiseman met with Davis on July 6, 1983, intending to confront the premier with a list of departmental regulations that Gordon appeared to have violated. Davis did not accept the list, and instead informed Wiseman that he was being dropped from cabinet. The premier argued that he needed to make space for three new ministers in an upcoming shuffle. Some suspect that Wiseman was punished for his feud with Gordon, though Davis has denied this.

The Progressive Conservatives, who had governed the province continually since 1943, lost power following the 1985 election. Wiseman was re-elected without difficulty in this cycle, but faced a surprisingly close challenge from Liberal Bob Pugh in the 1987 campaign. Wiseman won, but by only 761 votes. He held no critic portfolios in the legislature, and did not seek re-election in 1990.