Hugh O'Neil; my first politician.

The first politician I ever met has died.  Hugh O’Neil, who represented the former constituency of Quinte in the Ontario Legislature from 1975 to 1995 died on Monday at age 79.  The popular Liberal MPP was a tireless community activist and had respect that transcended partisanship.  Elected to the opposition benches during the government of Premier William G. Davis in the 32^nd year of the 42 continuous years of Progressive Conservative (when progressive actually meant something to conservatives) domination, O’Neil found himself on the government side of the legislature in 1985, and in cabinet after the sudden ascendancy of David Peterson as Premier.

I met Mr. O’Neil when I was four or five years old, in 1983 or 1984.  We lived in Frankford, the friendly village on the Trent River I still call my original hometown.  My Mom used to take part in the yearly Lion’s Journey for Sight, a walk-a-thon sponsored by the Lion’s Club that raised money for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).  The crowd assembled to begin the walk in the parking lot of the Lion’s Club hall, which was actually Frankford’s former railway station, an old frame building that was demolished over 20 years ago.  Elected officials always show up at these events, usually by invitation from the organizers.  It lends some support to a community cause and is free advertising for politicians hoping to be re-elected.  A photo was snapped of Mr. O’Neil giving me an Ontario coat of arms pin, which I still have over 30 years later.  The photo appeared in the next edition of The Quinte Report, the newsletter Mr. O’Neil occasionally sent in the mail to every household in the constituency.  A copy of it is still somewhere in my parent’s house in Listowel, my other hometown.  I still remember the red-brick house in the background of the photo.  Other people lived in it back then but now actually long-time friends of our family live there.

I remember red signs saying “Re-elect Hugh O’Neil, Liberal” during the 1985 Ontario election.  These signs on sticks that suddenly appeared in front yards and along roads fascinated me as a kid.  I never really knew what the difference was between PC, Liberal, or NDP back then, but seeing those signs started an interest and involvement in politics that has endured to this day, of course with changes in party affiliation and times of both profound enthusiasm and despair along the way.  We had a next door neighbour in Frankford named Frank Hoey.  He was an elderly gentleman with a thick Scottish accent who had moved from Toronto for retirement with his wife Fran.  Despite the thick accent, Frank had spent much of his younger life in Montreal where in the 1930’s he became one of Canada’s most prominent amateur athletes in competitive snowshoeing before becoming a prospector and a major figure in Canadian mining history.  One of these days, Frank will be the subject of a completely separate story.  I did not know he was ever famous until after he died and I read about him in the newspaper.  Anyhow, I used to love talking with Frank over the fence while I played in the backyard, often driving my little green plastic car called “Tuffy” which he and his wife had actually given me.  I said to Frank one day that I liked Hugh O’Neil.  Frank didn’t seem too impressed.  He said that nobody should ever seek re-election and that it was selfish for any elected official to go around expecting anyone to vote them back into office.  Frank was either a strong advocate of term limits or he was a conservative and just didn’t want to say so to a six year old neighbour on a plastic car.  I collected buttons back then, not clothing buttons, but the kind that advertise a particular cause or business.  The first political button someone ever gave me was a Hugh O’Neil Liberal button.  It’s still in a box somewhere too.

Although we were never friends or even knew each other, Hugh O’Neil unknowingly began my interest in politics.  As I said before, this interest has seen changes in party affiliation and times both good and bad along the way.  I also spent five years interviewing politicians as a reporter and can honestly say, notwithstanding my defense of the NDP as of late, that I met elected officials from every party in that experience whom I genuinely found to be hard-working, sincere people who put their constituency and community first.  By all accounts being shared in the day since his passing, Hugh O’Neil was one of those elected officials.