Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy smiles as he looks at a black and white photo shown to him The duty. “Oh my God,” he laughs. The photo dates from 1977. The man responsible for the portfolio of Ontarians, a graduate hat on his head, has just finished high school at the Chambly county school, rue Green, in Saint-Lambert. “The boy in the photo is the son of two Hungarian refugees,” he adds.
Sitting on a sofa in his office, near the Ontario parliament, Peter Bethlenfalvy, a fond of politics, recounts a childhood and adolescence shaped by some of the most salient moments in the history of Quebec. He watched the 1976 election night — the coronation of René Lévesque — from his basement. The October crisis had an “impact” on his life: Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped near his home on the South Shore. The Ontario MP is an assumed federalist: he worked on the “No” campaign in 1980.
But it is not of these events that the Quebecer thinks when he takes a look at the photo. “My life in Saint-Lambert was influenced by my parents,” he notes. The two fled from Hungary. Her mother left her at the age of nine, during the Second World War. His father fled when he was 19; behind him rose the iron curtain, forever separating him from his parents. Fifty years later, the family returned to visit their birthplace, where their parents’ tombstone was located. “When you grow up in such an environment, it defines you,” slips the minister, tears in his eye.
Peter Bethlenfalvy doesn’t remember if the high school student was interested in politics. His political philosophy, however, was formed from his post-secondary years. At Marianopolis College, he met two friends he still has to this day — Michael Hobart and Bruce Williams, two natives of Westmount — then the trio left to study at McGill University. The Minister of Finance finally becomes a member of the Young Conservatives and is sorry for the fiscal management of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. “At a young age, I said to myself, ‘we can’t afford all this debt. It shaped me. »
Economic vision
It’s been a busy day for the Minister in his offices in the Frost Building. His friend Eamonn McConnell saw that when he went for a drink with the minister recently. “I asked him how busy he was,” he says, “and he said ‘pick a day’, then he showed me all of his scheduled meetings. » Twenty minutes are reserved for the To have to. What’s on the schedule before and after? The minister responds with the tape what he has been explaining for a few months in front of the cameras: he wants to “rebuild the economy”.
Like one of his role models, Brian Mulroney, who became prime minister in 1984, Peter Bethlenfalvy explains that he is “focused on the economy”. A few months after arriving in Toronto in 1985, the Ontario minister visited MP Michael Wilson, appointed Minister of Finance by Brian Mulroney, and asked if he could volunteer with his riding association. He too, he says, was a role model. “I learned a lot,” he says.
Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled his second budget as finance minister in April 2022, just days before the provincial election was called, won by the Conservatives. Due to lack of time, the budget was not adopted — it rather represented the party platform — but it was resubmitted by the minister in August, after the re-election of the government, and represents an almost exact copy of the version former.
In this budget, the Minister does not plan to return to a balanced budget before 2027-2028. Bruce Williams, a former vice-president at the Bank of Montreal, describes his friend as someone who “fights deficits”. In April, the Office of the Director of Financial Accountability predicted that the province would be able to achieve balance in 2023-2024. But the Minister of Finance wanted to spend more. “We want to grow the economy,” he said in an interview with the CPAC network in April.
Quebec is not far away
The Quebec government and its Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, have the mission of closing the wealth gap with Ontario over the next fifteen years. In an interview with Radio-Canada, in 2020, Eric Girard had also revealed that his son was enrolled at the University of Toronto. Peter Bethlenfalvy does not specify if he has the impression of having his native province in his rear view mirror. “I want everyone to do well,” he says. “Quebec is a crucial member of our country,” he adds a few minutes later.
Peter Bethlenfalvy has not lost sight of Quebec. He tries to return to the province every summer at Métis-sur-Mer, between Matane and Rimouski. His parents used to rent a house in the area in the summer. “I love Quebec, but I also love this country. I respect the identity, the culture of Quebecers and their language,” enumerates the Ontario minister, thinking back to his childhood. On the file of Bill 96, the Anglo-Quebecer maintains that he has not looked into the question. “I’m so focused on Ontario,” he recalls.
Friends of Peter Bethlenfalvy maintain that he is extremely qualified for his position. Eamonn McConnell, his roommate during an exchange student in France, admits he was still surprised when he saw his friend in front of the cameras for the first time. “ C’mon! he said, laughing, surprised to see a close friend in the spotlight. “But he’s really good at his job,” he continues. The Minister remains down to earth, despite his important position. “I am here to serve the public. You have to remember that,” he notes.