This evening I am out and about in Prospect Street with my little band of volunteers. I couldn’t do this without them. 

There are lots of multi-tenanted rental properties and it’s a tough sell getting people to take my lawn signs. 

The empty properties have Vegh signs outside. It's par for the course.

But we make progress.

Cómo está usted?

I see a bunch of people unloading groceries from their SUV and I greet them in faltering Spanish. But it is enough to grab their attention.    

I stroll on. And now I am invited inside to talk to the home-owners. After ten minutes of genial conversation my lawn sign goes up outside their home.  

I walk past the Alexander Muir Retirement Residence. 

History is important

We live in an historic town and we need information boards on sidewalks to remind people what happened here. History is important. 

In the 1870s Alexander Muir was a school teacher – the Principal of the “Common School” on Prospect Avenue. According to Robinson’s massive six-volume "Landmarks of Toronto” Muir devoted his spare hours to newspaper work with the Newmarket ERA.

“Everyone, young and old, in Newmarket loved Alexander Muir. He always had a cheery word and a handshake for those who greeted him, and his familiar figure as he walked along the street, wearing for headgear a Glengarry cap, ornamented with a silver Scotch thistle, and the tails flying – he looked the typical Scotsman…”    

I don’t look anything like Alexander Muir but I know Lesmahagow where he was born.

Now I am talking to a young woman about train whistles. I was ambushed at last week’s Farmers’ Market on the same topic. So I am up to speed. Train whistles and railway safety are federally regulated. It is possible to get rid of these infuriating horn blasts but only if safety is not compromised. It can take a few years to sort it all out. I promise to do my best.

Politicians sell out

The last house I call on turns into a philosophical discourse on the nature of politics. The home-owner tells me all politicians sell-out. They get elected and their focus changes. The voters are no longer the priority.

I suppose there is some truth in this. The people we elect to represent us have got to take all sorts of other things into consideration when they make decisions for the collective good – not just the narrow interests of the people who voted for them.

Term limits

I am not in favour of term limits. The people should decide who should represent them - and for how long.

But if I am elected on 24 October I would only serve for one term.

I would listen to people and I would learn from them. I would understand the issues and never vote blind. And I would exercise my own judgement and do the right thing as I see it.

I'm in nobody's pocket.

Gordon Prentice 7 October 2022