Dawn King
High-level conservative connections
Five things to know
Dawn King was appointed to the LTB in December 2019, a few months after Doug Ford became premier.
Dawn King is a former RCMP officer.
Her husband Bill King is a conservative councillor for their rural area. Bill King has very high-level connections to conservative politicians.
Bill King worked for Mike Harris, the former premier of Ontario who gutted tenant protections, for over 20 years. Bill also served as chief-of-staff for disgraced federal MP Tony Clement.
Bill King is now running for the Progressive Conservative MPP seat under Doug Ford in the next provincial election. If he wins, he will be a sitting MPP while his wife Dawn is ordering evictions as an adjudicator.
Dawn King in 2015 with former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former Conservative federal minister Tony Clement.
Dawn King was appointed to the LTB on Dec. 12, 2019, under Ford. Less than a year later, in November 2020, her husband Bill, a rural conservative councillor in Lanark, announced he will be running for the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston. If all goes to plan, Bill will be sitting as an MPP in Ford's government while Dawn hands out eviction orders as an LTB adjudicator. Bill King’s campaign is endorsed by senior Conservative party members, including his old boss Mike Harris.
Dawn King has high-level connections to all levels of conservative government—municipal, provincial and federal. Her husband, Bill King, has worked for conservative politicians for over 35 years. Twenty of those years were spent working for Mike Harris, who has gone down in history as one of the most landlord-friendly premiers. In the year 2000 alone, Bill’s employer was responsible for 40,000 tenant households in Ontario “losing their homes without even a formal hearing under the fast-track eviction process” created by the Harris government.
Bill was also chief-of-staff for disgraced federal MP Tony Clement from 2008–2010. Clement was also the former provincial Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, who oversaw the LTB in the early 2000s.
From left: Mike Harris Jr., Dawn King and Bill King in November 2017 at the Albany Club tribute to Mike Harris, Sr.
Dawn King’s husband, Bill King, pictured with Premier Doug Ford in April 2018, shortly before Ford became premier. A year later, Dawn King was appointed under Ford as an adjudicator to the LTB.