Davis was born in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, the son of Vera (Hewetson) and Albert Grenville Davis. Davis was politically active from a young age. Local Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Gordon Graydon was a frequent guest at his parents' house, and Davis himself became the first delegate younger than seventeen years to attend a national Progressive Conservative convention in Canada. He frequently campaigned for local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Thomas Laird Kennedy, who briefly served as Premier of Ontario in 1949.
He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1951 and attended Osgoode Hall Law School. Davis was a football player during his university years, and his teammates included Roy McMurtry and Thomas Leonard Wells, both of whom would later serve in his cabinet.
He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1959 provincial election, for the southern Ontario constituency of Peel. He was only 29 years old. Although Peel was an extremely safe Conservative seat for most of its history, Davis won by a surprisingly narrow 1,203 votes. The election took place soon after the federal Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow program. Most of the 14,000 Canadians put out of work by this decision were residents of Peel, and many cast protest ballots against Diefenbaker by supporting Bill Brydon, the provincial Liberal candidate. Davis served for two years as a backbench supporter of Leslie Frost's government. When Frost announced his retirement in 1961, Davis became the chief organizer of Robert Macaulay's campaign to succeed him as premier and party leader. Macaulay was eliminated on the next-to-last ballot, and, with Davis, delivered crucial support for John Robarts to defeat Kelso Roberts on the final vote.
Davis was appointed to Robarts' cabinet as Minister of Education on October 5, 1962, and was re-elected by a greatly increased margin in the 1963 provincial election. Davis was given additional responsibilities as Ontario's Minister of University Affairs on May 14, 1964, and held both portfolios until 1971. He soon developed a reputation as a strongly interventionist minister, and oversaw a dramatic increase in education expenditures throughout the 1960s. He established many new public schools, often in centralized locations to accommodate larger numbers of students. Davis also undertook dramatic and, at the time, controversial revisions of Ontario's outdated and inefficient school board system. He reduced the number of boards from 3,676 in 1962 to only 192 by 1967.
Davis established new public universities as minister, including Trent University and Brock University, and established the province's public college system. He is also responsible for the establishment of the Ontario Educational Communications Authority educational television network in 1970. Davis' handling of the education portfolio made him a high-profile minister, and there was little surprise when he entered the leadership contest to succeed Robarts in 1971. He was quickly dubbed as the frontrunner, though his awkward speaking style and image as an "establishment" candidate hindered his campaign. He defeated rival candidate Allan Lawrence by only 44 votes on the final ballot, after receiving support from third-place candidate Darcy McKeough. Shortly after the convention, Davis invited Lawrence's campaign team to join his inner circle of advisors. This group became known as the Big Blue Machine, and remained the dominant organizational force in the Progressive Conservative Party until the 1980s.
Shortly after taking office as premier, Davis announced that his government would not permit continuing construction of the rest of the Spadina Expressway into downtown Toronto (an initiative that had been unpopular with many of the area's residents). The "Davis ditch", the section of Allen Road south of Lawrence Avenue was nicknamed in his honour. He also rejected a proposal to grant full funding to Ontario's Catholic high schools, which some regarded as an appeal to the Progressive Conservative Party's rural Protestant base. Davis's team ran a professional campaign in the 1971 provincial election, and was rewarded with an increased majority government.
Davis's first full term as premier was by most accounts his least successful, with public confidence in his government weakened by a series of scandals. There were allegations that the Fidinam Company had received special consideration for a Toronto development program in return for donations to the Progressive Conservative Party. In 1973, it was revealed that Davis' friend Gerhard Moog had received a valuable untendered contract for the construction of Ontario Hydro's new head office and related projects. Attorney General Dalton Bales, Solicitor General John Yaremko and Treasurer McKeough were all accused of conflicts-of-interest relating to government approval for developments on properties they owned. The government was cleared of impropriety in all cases, but its popular support nonetheless declined. The Conservatives lost four key by-elections in 1973 and 1974.
On the policy front, the Davis administration introduced regional governments for Durham, Hamilton-Wentworth, Haldimand-Norfolk, and Waterloo but shelved further plans in response to popular protests. The government was also forced to cancel a planned 7% energy tax in 1973 following protests from the Progressive Conservative backbench. In the buildup to the 1975 provincial election, Davis imposed a ninety-day freeze on energy prices, temporarily reduced the provincial sales tax from 7% to 5%, and announced rent controls for the province.
The 1975 campaign was far bitterer than that of 1971, with Davis and Liberal leader Robert Nixon repeatedly hurling personal insults at one another. Polls taken shortly before the election had the Liberals in the lead. The Progressive Conservatives won only 51 seats out of 125, but were able to remain in power with a minority government. The New Democratic Party (NDP) won 38 seats under the leadership of Stephen Lewis, while Nixon's Liberals finished third with 36. Soon after the election, Davis hired Hugh Segal as his legislative secretary.
Davis appointed right-wingers Frank Miller and James Taylor to key cabinet portfolios after the election, but withdrew from a proposed austerity program following a negative public response. In 1977, he introduced a policy statement written by Segal which became known as the "Bramalea Charter", promising extensive new housing construction for the next decade. Davis called a snap election in 1977, but was again returned with only a minority. The Progressive Conservatives increased their standing to 58 seats, against 34 for the Liberals and 33 for the NDP.
The Conservatives remained the dominant party after the 1975 and 1977 elections due to the inability of either the New Democrats or the Liberals to become the clear alternative. The Conservatives were able to stay in power due to the competition between both opposition parties. As there was no serious consideration of a Liberal-NDP alliance after both campaigns, Davis was able to avoid defeat in the legislature by appealing to other parties for support on particular initiatives. His government often moved to the left of the rural-based Liberals on policy issues. The opposition parties had also undergone leadership changes; Nixon and Lewis, who had posed a strong challenge to Davis, resigned after the 1975 and 1977 elections, respectively. Nixon's successor Stuart Lyon Smith proved unable to increase Liberal support, while new NDP leader Michael Cassidy lacked the support of the party establishment and could not measure up to Lewis's charismatic and dynamic figure.
This period of the Davis government was one of expansion for the province's public health and education systems, and Davis held a particular interest in ensuring that the province's community colleges remained productive. The government also expanded the provisions of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and expanded bilingual services without introducing official bilingualism to the province.
The Progressive Conservatives were returned with a majority government in the 1981 provincial election, mostly at the expense of the NDP. Soon after the election, Davis announced that John Tory had been hired to succeed Hugh Segal as his principal secretary. He also announced that Ontario would purchase a 25% share in the energy corporation Suncor, despite opposition from within his own caucus.
In 1983 Davis considered moving to federal politics by running to lead the federal Progressive Conservatives when Joe Clark only received lukewarm support during a leadership review. Davis decided not to do so when he realized that he would not receive endorsements from western Canada because of his support for the Constitution patriation and the National Energy Program. His candidacy had been strongly opposed by Peter Lougheed, the Premier of Alberta. He retired a few months before the 1985 election, with him and his government still well ahead in polls against David Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's NDP. One of his last major acts as premier was to reverse his 1971 decision against the full funding of Catholic schools, and announce that such funding would be provided to the end of Grade Thirteen. Although the policy was supported by all parties in the legislature, it was unpopular with some in the Conservatives' traditional rural Protestant base, and many would stay home in the upcoming election because of this issue.
Davis was succeeded by Frank Miller, who was elected leader at a January 1985 leadership convention over Larry Grossman (who was widely considered the successor to Davis and his Big Blue Machine). Although Miller was more conservative, the Progressive Conservatives still held a significant lead over the opposition when the election was called. However, after a poor campaign and controversy over Catholic school funding, in the 1985 provincial election they were reduced to minority government and lost the popular vote to the Liberal Party, and were soon defeated in a motion of non-confidence by a Liberal-NDP accord, ending the party's 42-year period of rule over the province.
Davis was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1985, and since his retirement from politics has served on numerous corporate boards. Davis's reputation within the Ontario Progressive Conservatives was compromised during the 1990s by the party's shift to the right under Mike Harris. Many Conservatives parliamentarians were openly dismissive of Davis-era spending policies, and frequently highlighted the differences between Davis and Harris on policy issues. Davis remained a supporter of the party, but seldom appeared at official events. In a National Post editorial, on the tenth anniversary of Harris' 1995 electoral victory, Harris' chief of staff described the difference in their policies, saying that Davis retained power with a careful balancing act, while Harris used a bold platform to unexpectedly catapult the party from third place to first.
In 2003, Davis played a role in the successful negotiations to merge the federal Progressive Conservatives with the Canadian Alliance, and create the new Conservative Party of Canada. (Clark refused to endorse the newly merged party.) In the 2006 federal campaign, he campaigned for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and endorsed former provincial minister Jim Flaherty. Harper spoke favorably of Davis during the campaign, and said that he learned much from Davis's style of governing. The Conservatives were able to defeat the Liberals to form the government.
In recent years Davis has returned to an honored position within the party. He was a keynote speaker at the 2004 Progressive Conservative leadership convention, and was singled out for praise in speeches by outgoing party leader Ernie Eves and new leader John Tory. Davis was also present for Tory's first session in the Ontario legislature, following the latter's victory in a 2005 by-election.
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