Bob Runciman

Bob Runciman is a long time Canadian politician. Runciman was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election as the Progressive Conservative MPP for Leeds-Grenville in eastern Ontario. He has been returned in each subsequent provincial election. Prior to going to Queen's Park, Runciman owned a local weekly newspaper and sat as a municipal councillor in Brockville.

Runciman was Minister of Government Services and then Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations in the short lived 1985 cabinet of Ontario Premier Frank Miller. With the defeat of Miller's government, Runciman joined his party on the opposition benches.

When the Tories returned to power in the 1995 Ontario election, Runciman became Solicitor-General Minister of Correctional Services in the government of Mike Harris. In 1999 he moved to the portfolio of Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations and then Minister of Economic Development and Trade. When Ernie Eves succeeded Harris as Premier in 2002 he named Runciman his Minister of Public Safety and Security (as the position of Solicitor General became known in the period following 9-11).

Runciman returned to the opposition benches with the defeat of the Eves government in the 2003 Ontario election. He supported John Tory in the leadership election to succeed Eves. Tory won the contest and, not having a seat in the legislature, named Runciman to the position of interim Leader of the Opposition in September 2004.