Behind the curtain with Attorney General of Ontario Doug Downey

In the early 2000s, Doug Lewis — a lawyer and former federal attorney general — took an interest in a young lawyer who worked in his wife’s office building. A lunchtime meeting revealed that lawyer — Doug Downey, called to the bar in 1999 — was hoping to open a law firm. 

Lewis decided to come along for the ride and that lunch was the launchpad for Lewis Downey Tornosky Lassaline & Timpano PC. 

“He was hard-working,” Lewis says of Downey’s early career. “He was into the Kiwanis Club and community efforts. I just like the way he seemed to balance all that.” 

Still, how did a lawyer just a couple of years out of school manage to hook a former justice minister and solicitor general of Canada into his firm?

“Well,” says Lewis. “He is also quite a likeable chap.” 

Today, that young lawyer has one of the most closely scrutinized roles in law, after being named attorney general of Ontario in June 2019. 

At the peak of his career, Downey is facing more challenges than ever before. 

The legal community, confronted with devastating cuts to the legal aid funding regime, was demanding action from the moment Downey set foot at 720 Bay Street. Then there’s the fight with the federal government over the carbon tax and looming potential changes to the judicial selection process. Amid the pressure, Downey capped off 2019 with a major justice overhaul bill that has drawn a variety of reactions. The legal community’s passion, while raw, has also provided some honesty.

“I am a politician and a lawyer. So, I'm used to getting a variety of opinions on what people think. But I actually like getting opinions. I think if somebody is telling me something, there are probably 10 people who would never say something to me,” says Downey.  

As it turned out, likeability and hard work can get a lawyer a long way, notes Lewis, who says that during their 14 years as partners, Downey seemed to be on friendly terms with every real estate agent and was frequently able to call on contacts across the country dating back to his days at Dalhousie. 

Downey credits his demeanour to his parents, who were heavily involved in the community and had a diverse group of friends. His mother, a nurse, later became a family counsellor and then a crisis counsellor. 

“I grew up with that frame of reference of some of the challenges with how people treat each other in the real world. And understanding that reality, and the supports that need to be there for people,” says Downey. “Both my parents, they look for the good in people, and I think that's something that I value.” 

As AG, Downey has an opportunity he’s always wanted: making the justice system run more smoothly. Being the son of an engineer, Downey unsurprisingly describes being enthralled with how each part of the system comes together, like the picture forming from a jigsaw puzzle.

That puzzle is what initially drew Downey as a young man to apply for a summer job in the Barrie courthouse, although he was used to gigs working on area farms, roofing or driving a parts truck. 

“It's more curiosity than ambition. I just I like to learn things. I like to learn how things work. And it can be mechanical things or it can be systems. I just have a real passion for systems. Because somebody built them. And so, it comes from their frame of reference. And you see that [in] every industry, every walk of life,” says Downey. 

“I did real estate . . .  because there are real deadlines. People are actually moving, the truck is in the driveway, we need to close this deal. And so, we really have to project manage to get everything closed on time.” 

Downey says his work as a lawyer prepared him to be attorney general in many ways.  

“I can advocate very strenuously for something that I believe needs to happen, without it being personal. I don't have to get personal about it, I can lay out ‘here's the case, here's the logic in the background,’” says Downey. “I was a frontline lawyer. I saw people interacting with the system for the first time a lot, and how confusing the system is for them.” 

Lewis notes that both he and Downey share backgrounds as solicitors — a hyper-organized, deadline-driven profession that lends itself well to the role of attorney general. 

“I'm very structured,” says Downey. “My keys are in the same space every day. I don't have to think about it. I get my stuff and I go, and I walk down the street. And here I am. So, it’s simplicity, I think, is the rule.” 

But despite what Lewis called a “team-player” reputation, Downey also maintains a streak of self-reliance and individualism. Try to nail him down to a favourite restaurant or even signature coffee order and he bucks being put in a box. 

“I really like being myself. I like to carry my own bags. I like to make my own coffee, I like to just be very not caught up in the trappings of this office and really connect with people,” he says. 

The political cycle goes up and down, but after starting a firm without a single file,  

Lewis says Downey’s persistence in law prepared him to deal with the wins and losses that come with politics. 

“[Downey] ran for a nomination . . . and it was quite a hard slog,” Lewis recalls. “It was a long battle and he lost, and he dealt with that very well. He took the high road. He grew.”  

Even in victory, Lewis says a memorable thing about Downey is that he doesn’t brag. 

“You're not overwhelmed by ambition or anything. He talks in a very matter-of-fact way. . . . There is no edge on Doug.” 

Downey says there’s a piece of paper in his law office that he re-visits when times get tough. 

“It says, ‘People don't remember what happened to you. They remember how you handled it.’ And I think, regardless of what happens, you can still be professional and still listen,” Downey says. 

“There are people out there doing amazing things. Part of the role of government is to facilitate people doing things — not necessarily to do it for them — and to not to get in the way of what they're doing. We don't always have to get the credit for it. It just has to get done.”