On behalf of the official opposition, it is an incredible honour to pay tribute today to Mr. Bill Murdoch, and I’d like to welcome his family to the Legislature.

He served in the various iterations of the riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound as a Progressive Conservative from September 6, 1990, to September 18, 2008; as an independent from September 18, 2008, to April 23, 2009; and, once again, as a Progressive Conservative from April 23, 2009, to September 7, 2011.

In the Canadian Parliamentary Guide, he’s listed as a farmer, and although he had a long and varied career in industry as a farmer, I couldn’t think of a greater compliment, and hopefully some day I will be listed in that guide as a farmer.

I never had the chance to meet Bill Murdoch, but I did feel his impact. I was on the board of the 2009 International Plowing Match. And the way plowing matches work, once you know you’re getting a plowing match, you go to the one before or a couple before. I’d never been to a plowing match—it never came to northern Ontario—so I went to the one in Teeswater. Now, I didn’t see that parade, but I was there for a couple of days, and everyone there was talking about Bill Murdoch and that parade, because that’s when Bill Murdoch was an independent. And the Tory party rode on their float, and Bill Murdoch rode on a fire truck. I’ve got to say, what I heard, he had a lot more support than the Tory party in that parade. I felt it. Although I’d never met him, I felt it. And I ran, as well, in the 2007 election. I wasn’t successful the first time, as Bill wasn’t successful the first time. But I felt that feeling. And I thought, wow, people feel that he’s standing up for them.

And it wasn’t the first time that he’d run afoul of his party, because in a 1999 Toronto Star article, he was described as a “Braveheart MPP,” partly for the movie poster that was in his office but partly for his habit of speaking his truth to power. Sometimes when you do that, when you buck the system, you pay a penalty. And Bill Murdoch was willing to buck the system for what he believed, and I really respect that.

And he paid—the one I really enjoyed: He was a parliamentary assistant for northern development and mines. He went out to placate us disgruntled northerners about something, ended up agreeing with the disgruntled northerners and losing his parliamentary assistant post. I really like that.

But the one that caught me by surprise, I have to say, was the headline, “Ontario Tory Mulls Move to Give NDP Party Status.” That one caught me by surprise, because, as everyone knows, I come from a long lineage of Tories. Actually, Ernie Hardeman is my uncle. He also has a bit of a history with Bill Murdoch, and I understand that. He truly believed in the legislative process, as we all do. When you truly believe in the legislative process, sometimes you think outside the box. He didn’t make the same jump I did, and I’m proud I made the jump, but he mulled it for a very important reason.

I’d like to end my time here with a quote from Bill Murdoch. It was from the Owen Sound Sun Times regarding his retirement. He decided to leave, and that’s something that, actually, very few of us have the chance to do. Often, people decide it for us.

When they asked what his greatest accomplishments were—and something that spoke to my heart: “But when you help somebody that has a hard time getting through the bureaucracy, which is one of the biggest downfalls of democracy is the bureaucracy ... I think that’s the biggest accomplishment, if you can actually go away saying we did help somebody.” Anyone who has done work in a constituency office knows that feeling.

And further he went to say, when they asked what he was going to do now, “I’ll still have my farm to run, I’ll still belong to the local service clubs, and I’ll still be outspoken. I just won’t be going to Queen’s Park anymore.”

As a farmer, as a parliamentarian, I couldn’t think of a life better lived. I’d like to thank the family for giving the people of Ontario his time to serve—to serve as a maverick, to serve as a farmer, to serve as himself. Thank you very much.