I sat down with Ontario’s living former premiers. Here’s what I learned

It’s simply the most exclusive club in Ontario’s history: of the tens of millions of people who have lived in the province since 1867, only 25 men and one woman have sat behind the premier’s desk. That’s 26 people in 158 years.

Besides their title, what else do they have in common? What traits led them to the province’s top job? Is there a shared ruthlessness? Or sense of purpose? As they look back, was it worth doing? Did it bring some lasting misery into their lives?

These questions have fascinated me ever since I interviewed former premier Bill Davis almost four decades ago. It was 1986, and after a quarter of a century in public life, Davis was now a year out of politics, adjusting to life as a private citizen. I went to his new law office to ask about that adjustment — and by the time I got to the end of the interview, it seemed to me as if Davis’s new job was a helluva lot better than[…] This is an excerpt. Read the full article on the TVO website.