such efforts, he finished a weak third on the first ballot and was dropped from the race. Many expected that Pope would have given Timbrell a second-ballot victory by endorsing him, but Pope surprisingly remained silent and allowed Grossman to defeat Timbrell by a mere 19 votes. Last years in legislature Pope had a poor relationship with Grossman, was not given a critic's portfolio after the convention. He resumed his law practice in Timmins while still an MPP, and he spent two days a week away from the legislature. He nonetheless ran for re-election in the 1987 provincial election and retained his seat. The Progressive Conservatives under Grossman were resoundingly defeated in the election, which left Pope as one of only 16 Tory MPPs (out of 130 seats) remaining. Pope was not given a critic's portfolio in this parliament and did not play a prominent role in the party's affairs. He decided not to run for the leadership again in 1990 and endorsed Dianne Cunningham for the position. He did not campaign in the 1990 provincial election. Cabinet positions Pope and Mike Harris Although Pope's anti-establishment rhetoric and populism foreshadowed Mike Harris's tenure as party leader, the two men were frequent adversaries in the Progressive Conservative Party after 1985. In 1997, Pope made headlines when he publicly criticized Premier Harris and accused the government of demonizing teachers and supporting the teachers' strike against Harris's Bill 160 (the "Education Quality Improvement Act"), which removed the ability of collective bargaining agreements to regulate working conditions for teachers, introduced teacher testing, and allowed the government to increase class sizes and reduce preparation time. Later years In 2004, Pope chaired a committee looking into Timmins's involvement in the 2006 Ontario Games. As of 2003, he acted as counsel for the law firm of Racicot, Maisonneuve, Labelle, Gosselin. He wrote a series of articles on the 2004 federal election for the Sudbury Star newspaper, arguing that no party was adequately focused on issues of concern to Northern Ontario. In 2006, Pope wrote a report on the Kashechewan Crisis, recommending that residents of the community be relocated to a new reserve site near Timmins. He was married with one son David, wife Kirstin Danielson and two grandchildren Beatrice and Theodore Pope. Pope died on July 8, 2022 in Calgary, Alberta following heart surgery. References External links 1945 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Canadian politicians Members of the