Dennis Roy Timbrell (born November 13, 1946) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1971 to 1987, and was a Cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller. Background Timbrell was born in Kingston, Ontario and educated at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario and York University in Toronto. His brother Robert was an actor and performer, better known by the stage name Rusty Ryan. Timbrell worked as a teacher before entering provincial politics, and served as an alderman in North York from January 1970 until September 1, 1972. Provincial politics Timbrell contested 1971 provincial election as a candidate for the PCs, and won election in the Toronto constituency of Don Mills. He was re-elected without difficulty in the campaigns of 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1985. Cabinet He became a minister without portfolio responsible for youth in the Davis government on February 26, 1974, and was named as minister of energy on July 18, 1975. On February 3, 1977, he was promoted to minister of health. After serving in this high-profile position for five years, he became minister of agriculture and food on February 13, 1982. First leadership campaign Following Davis's resignation as PC leader and as premier, Timbrell sought the party leadership at the January 1985 leadership convention. He positioned himself as a centre-right candidate, further to the right of Red Tory rivals Larry Grossman and Roy McMurtry, but not as far to the right as Frank Miller, and therefore the candidate best able to continue Davis' pragmatic, successful style of government. (In fact, many media pundits at the time referred to Timbrell as a "clone" of Davis; playing to this, some of Timbrell's supporters at the January 1985 convention wore buttons that depicted a caricature which morphed the facial features of both Davis and Timbrell into one person). Timbrell was the only candidate to favour eliminating rent controls during the campaign. His supporters included Keith Norton, Leo Bernier, Margaret Birch, Robert Eaton, Gordon Dean, Bob Welch and Norm Sterling. Timbrell placed second on the first ballot, but was eliminated when he fell to third place on the second ballot, six votes behind Grossman who had the backing of McMurtry's campaign. Dr. John Balkwill in 1987 claimed that 30 to 40 Miller supporters were instructed by the Miller campaign to vote for Grossman on the second