Ontario's Progressive Conservatives have chosen former finance minister Ernie Eves as their new leader. He'll take over for Premier Mike Harris, who is stepping down.

Eves took a comfortable lead after the first ballot, taking 41.3 per cent of the vote. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was second at 29 per cent.

As the second ballot got underway, candidates Elizabeth Witmer and Tony Clement threw their support to the Eves camp, helping him clinch the win.

In the end, Eves won 54.6 per cent of the ballots, with Flaherty trailing at 37.8 per cent.

Eves, 55, was first elected to the legislature in 1981 in the central Ontario riding of Parry Sound. He served as finance minister for six years. He left politics last year to work for an investment bank.

As finance minister, he boasted of taking a $11 billion budget deficit and turning it into a surplus in just four years.

New Democrat Marilyn Churley said the Tories won two majority governments while the province's economy was booming, but now they're facing a deficit.

"They brought in a law that said they can't run a deficit," she said. "But yet there's going to be pressure on him to move more to the middle and reinvest in education and housing, do something about the homeless problem, health. How's he going to balance all of that?"

In his acceptance speech, Eves praised Mike Harris for his "Common Sense Revolution" and vowed to lead the party to a third consecutive majority government.

"We begin with a strong foundation, and for that, Mike, we will never be able to adequately express our gratitude to you and what you have done for our great party," he said. "The greatest compliment we can give to him is to continue the common sense work that he began.

Eves is expected to be sworn in as premier in the next couple of weeks.

His next step will to rebuild the party. Recent polls suggest it's up to 20 percentage points behind the provincial Liberals in public support. An election doesn't have to be called for more than two years.

As the Tories were counting votes, striking provincial civil servants and anti-poverty activists gathered outside the Metro Convention Centre.

Close to 45,000 members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) went on strike 10 days ago. Their union said the workers have been "shattered" by seven years of cuts, layoffs and privatization under the Harris government.