Harris was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Hope Gooding (née Robinson) and Sidney Deane Harris. He grew up in North Bay, where his father operated the Wasi Falls Resort fishing camp. Harris attended Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) but left after a year.\n', '

At the age of 21, following his father\'s purchase of a ski-hill, Harris moved to Sainte-Adèle, Quebec where he became a ski instructor over the course of two years. After the end of his first marriage, he enrolled at Laurentian University and North Bay Teacher\'s College where he received his teaching certificate. He was employed as an elementary school teacher at W. J. Fricker Public School in North Bay where he taught grade seven and eight mathematics for several years in a new open-concept class of 120 students. He continued in his previous occupation as a ski-instructor at Nipissing Ridge on weekends as well as working at his father\'s fishing camp during the summer season. He eventually left the teaching profession as the success of the ski resort escalated. After his father sold his ski-hill operation, Harris was hired to manage North Bay\'s Pinewood Golf Club.\n', '

Harris was elected to public office as a school board trustee in 1974. He entered provincial politics in the 1981 election, and defeated the incumbent Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in Nipissing, Mike Bolan. Harris later suggested that he was motivated to enter politics by an opposition to the policies of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.\n', '

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