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Alan Pope is a former Ontario politician.
He was first elected to the Ontario legislature as a Progressive Conservative MPP in the 1977 Ontario election representing the riding of Cocharne South which includes his home town of Timmins. Following the 1981 Ontario election he was brought into Premier Bill Davis's cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources. When Frank Miller succeeded Davis in February 1985 he promoted Pope to the portfolio of Minister of Health. He kept his seat in the 1985 Ontario election but lost his position in cabinet when the Tory government fell and moved into Opposition in May 1985.
Pope ran to succeed Miller as Tory leader in the November 1985 Tory leadership convention but came in a weak third of a field of three behind Dennis Timbrell and victor Larry Grossman. He retained his seat in the 1987 Ontario election that reducted the Tories to third place but decided not to run for the party's leadership in the 1990 leadership convention and was not a candidate in the 1990 Ontario election deciding to leave Queen's Park after thirteen years to return to Timmins.
In 1997, Pope made headlines when he publicly criticized Tory Premier Mike Harris accusing the government of demonizing teachers and supporting the teachers' strike against Bill 160 (the "Education Quality Improvement Act") which removed the ability of collective bargaining agreements to regulate working conditions for teachers, introducted teacher testing and allowed the government to increase class sizes and reduce preparation time for teachers.
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