On behalf of the Ontario Liberal caucus, I’m proud to pay tribute to Gary Fox, former MPP for Prince Edward–Lennox-South–Hastings, member in Mike Harris’s government from 1995 to 1999.

Mr. Fox graduated from the Advanced Agriculture Leadership Program at the University of Guelph and was a proud third-generation farmer and, as has just been pointed out, a good old country boy, dealing in beef, cash crop, dairy and sheep at the core of his operation. I’m not a farmer and I’m not a good old country boy, but I’ve had the honour of representing many of them for nearly 20 years. So when I heard that Mr. Fox was county chair and director of the Ontario Milk Marketing Board, served on the Ontario vegetable marketing board, was provincial director of the Prince Edward Federation of Agriculture and a founding member and vice-chairman of Agricultural Marketing for Eastern Ontario, that kind of blew me away. Farmers don’t have a lot of time on their hands, as I’m sure Mr. Vanthof would agree, and to participate in all those additional activities is really quite something. So Mr. Fox was a farmer by trade, but he dedicated his entire life to public service.

He began his political journey as a councillor on Sophiasburgh township council, later serving on Prince Edward county council as reeve of Sophiasburgh. With 20 years of municipal experience, Mr. Fox ran for the Tories in 1995 and joined the Common Sense Revolution to victory. He fought hard every day for the people of Prince Edward county here at Queen’s Park.

In addition to his immense experience in the agriculture sector, Mr. Fox was also a strong advocate for the environment. He was past chairman of the Prince Edward Region Conservation Authority and a founding member of the Prince Edward round table on the environment and the economy.

Sadly, Mr. Fox was diagnosed with cancer about five years ago, and he passed away this past December on the Fox family farm.

We’re joined here today at Queen’s Park by his wife, Lynn; his daughter Lori; his son Kyle; his grandchildren Nicholas, Olivia, Jackson, Ethan, Halla; his daughter-in-law Tanya; Paige Barr; Brendan Taylor; and Mandy Martin, his former constituency assistant. To all of you, thank you for sharing Mr. Fox with us and with the people of Ontario and the residents of Prince Edward county.

It’s an incredible honour today to be able to pay tribute to Mr. Gary Fox on behalf of the official opposition. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but on reading the research, I found out that we travelled many of the same halls. As a former dairy farmer, I started farming when NAFTA and GATT were huge, huge issues. Many people stopped dairy farming because of NAFTA and GATT. He played a role in helping us.

He was on the board of directors of the federation of agriculture, as was I. I know how much work is involved in being in agriculture politics. He was on many more boards. I was on the board of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario; he was on many others. We know how much work is involved.

But I’d like to take a couple of quotes and take some license and perhaps expand on them: “Gary was a determined man with conviction. He could be a hard old county farmer on days, but most that knew him and loved him knew him as someone that just loved to visit and listen.” And I’d like to take the “hard old county farmer,” because one thing that farmers do on a daily basis—they deal with life and death. They make choices of which animal stays and which animal isn’t productive enough. And it’s not that they don’t love that animal; they love them all. It’s because they won’t be successful, but they have to make those decisions.

When we get here, sometimes those decisions—we seem hard. But we’re used to making them, and I think that that came across in that quote.

Mr. Fox suffered and fought cancer for five years, and farmers—I don’t think there’s anyone, because they deal with such hard things, who appreciates every day that the sun comes up that they get to be with their family, get to be on their farm, get to do the things they love. I don’t know anyone who appreciates that more.

The final one that I’d like to touch on—and I’m really going to take licence with this, so hopefully you will allow me to do so. We lost a good old country boy. I know what a good old country boy is, and I think it’s an incredible compliment, but many might not know.

I’m going to tell a version—I’m really dating myself—of a Little Johnny joke. Little Johnny is the country boy—my name is John, so I’ll use myself. It’s grade 1, and the teacher says, “A farmer has 10 sheep in a pen. There’s a hole in the fence, and one sheep goes through the hole. How many sheep does the farmer have?” Little Johnny has got this. Teacher reluctantly asks Little Johnny, and he says, “Teacher, the farmer has zero sheep.” Someone else put their hand up. City Susie says, “Teacher, 10 minus one equals nine.” And the teacher says, “That’s correct. Johnny, you don’t know math.” Johnny is a country boy; he’s polite. He thinks to himself, “Teacher, you don’t know sheep.” And that is the definition of a country boy.

To be that, “We lost a good old country boy”—I can’t think of a higher tribute to someone who has served this province, served agriculture, and who his family has shared with the rest of us to the benefit of all Ontarians.

Thanks to the two members opposite for their tributes today—especially, you, Little Johnny; we appreciate your colourful tribute this evening.

Gary Fox served here from 1995 to 1999 as the member for Prince Edward–Lennox-South–Hastings.

Foxy, as he was known by most people, loved his farm. He loved his farm on Jericho Road in Prince Edward county and the four generations of family that he and Lynn raised there.

At his funeral, which was just over two months ago, on December 14, at the Wellington Community Centre in Prince Edward county, Gary’s son Kyle, who is up above us in the Speaker’s gallery, spoke. Kyle continues to farm there. He considered his dad a social farmer. He was a central figure in the local agricultural community, enjoying a connection with people who came out to the homestead to visit, who gathered at a cattle sale, or who may have needed assistance with their own crops or their own equipment. He was always there to help.

As the saying goes, you could take the country boy off the farm, but you could never separate the farm from the country boy. That was apparent even in the five years that he valiantly battled cancer, when he wouldn’t let himself sit idle, even as illness took hold, betraying a well-developed work ethic.

As was touched on by Mr. Vanthof, he loved his farm. Kyle recalled that Gary couldn’t get around the fields as he’d have liked in the later years, but it never stopped him. He’d hop in his truck and make the rounds. He’d take it all in. Even when he couldn’t ride the tractor or get up into the tractor, he convinced Kyle to get him a ride or help him with his tasks. Gary was in his glory when he was on his property. He couldn’t sit in the house. Some might even call him stubborn. Those folks up there probably might say he was a bit stubborn, I bet.

Once he would see there was work to be done, Foxy would call Kyle: “Get the tractor hooked up. Get me into that tractor. Let me drive it. I can help. Just get me into the driver’s seat. I’ll do whatever is necessary.” I suspect that attitude is what led Foxy to put his name forward to run in Sophiasburgh township, where he served over 20 years as reeve and councillor, and ultimately what brought him to this place in 1995, representing Prince Edward–Lennox-South–Hastings.

Gary was pretty passionate about allowing rural Ontarians to enjoy their land as he did. He thought there were too many regulations impacting those freedoms, and he fought tirelessly to remove red tape, especially in the agricultural sector. In the four years he was here, he believed in making tough but necessary choices, and noted when talking about then-Premier Mike Harris that he admired a politician who “said what he meant and meant what he said.” Premier Harris actually felt the same about Gary Fox. As a matter of fact, the former Premier said, “Gary was always very proud of being a farmer and never hesitated to speak up in caucus—forcefully, I might add—on behalf of farmers and rural Ontario.”

Foxy was a straight shooter. That’s what he was. You didn’t have to guess how he stood on any issue. He wasn’t afraid to speak up as the Progressive Conservative rural caucus chair, and he would sign petitions or he would ask questions if he felt that the government wasn’t doing enough for rural families, for young people or for those who needed a break.

He was also known for his quick wit and one-liners—many of them you can see on Hansard, and some I won’t repeat here. Somehow, he managed all of his friendly jabs without a warning from the Speaker. Imagine that.

After a narrow upset by 56 votes in a redistributed riding in 1999—56 votes—Gary returned home, where he was actually happiest. He was known as an expert in raising sheep. He was able to enjoy the experience of Kyle and Tanya, his daughter Lori—who also served in municipal politics—and husband Manson, and Ian and Christina, and raise their families, with eight children between them, and two great-grandchildren.

Just a couple of stories about his grandkids: Ethan and Nathan would often help with odd jobs like fixing fences or chasing strays. Ethan recalled one time when Gary was trying to sell one of his donkeys to a couple who was looking to find one that was suitable for riding. To demonstrate, he put his grandson Ethan on the back of the donkey. He walked it in the circle for a bit, then he let loose on the harness, beaming, “Watch her go!” It wasn’t too long before the donkey reared off and bucked Ethan from his back. Foxy outfoxed himself that day; that sale did not happen.

Grandson Jackson also recalls there would be big trips to the sales barn each Tuesday in Grandpa’s cattle truck. Often, they’d return with treasures like candy and trinkets from the yard sale folks, or farmyard pets like rabbits or ducks. You never really knew what you might find at the sales; sometimes there were even pigs there. Jackson asked and asked, but Foxy knew his parents wouldn’t be too pleased to welcome the pigs home; Foxy learned that a guinea pig wasn’t going to do either. Finally, when he asked Jackson why he wanted the animal so badly, he replied, “I love bacon.” That was the first meat his parents were actually able to convince him to eat. Well, that Christmas Foxy was pretty excited when his grandson opened the biggest pack of bacon that anyone could ever imagine under the tree. No doubt Grandpa knew just where to find it, with all his social acquaintances in the farming community. His eyes lit up, and it remains a special memory for the family today.

While Foxy loved spending time around the farm with his family, he also stayed engaged in Ontario politics and inspired those around him to consider their own civic duty.

Over the past year, I’ve been very fortunate to have another Foxy working alongside me. Last spring, Gary’s granddaughter Olivia joined my constituency office team, and then she moved here to Toronto as my MPP liaison at the Ministry of Energy. She’s up there too, along with—not all my team, but a good chunk of my Ministry of Energy team is here as well. She has a lot of the same attributes that her grandpa had—a bit stubborn at times, but a real warm heart and a vibrant personality. Often, Olivia would come into the constituency office and say, “Grandpa heard this” or “Grandpa heard that,” and you’d know that his network of sources was still pretty bang on. His large social circle included the Premier, whose father, Doug Senior, served with Foxy here from 1995 to 1999, and their lasting friendship shows the respect he earned from that family and many others. To quote Premier Ford, which I did at the funeral in Wellington back in December: “I have fond memories of Lynn and Gary coming to the house and also visiting my parents in Florida. My dad and Gary were cut from the same cloth. My dad considered Gary was one of his closest friends from Queen’s Park. The stories that Gary would tell would have us all in stitches. He was as real as they come. There was no filter and that is what we loved about him. He will be dearly missed.”

As he did on the farm, Foxy played the role of the good shepherd for many within Prince Edward county, across Ontario and for many, many others through his public service. I’m pleased to have been able to call him and his family friends and to live in the Bay of Quinte community that he helped grow.

Just a moment to thank Gary’s family members who are here with us today: In the gallery, it has already been mentioned, that Lynn, his wife of 57 years, is here with us this evening; his son Kyle is there with his wife, Tanya; we also have his grandsons Nicholas and Jackson; Olivia, the great granddaughter—she’s a granddaughter, but she’s a great granddaughter—his daughter Lori Slik, and her husband, Manson Slik; Ethan and Halla are here; Paige Barr; Brendan Taylor; Mandy Martin, who was the constituency assistant for Gary as well, and our Speaker during the 35th Parliament, David Warner. Thanks to all of you for sharing your grandpa, your dad, your husband and your friend with all of us. Prince Edward county, Prince Edward–Lennox-South–Hastings and Ontario are a better place because of Gary Fox.

Applause.