Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in remembrance for the late Mr. James A. Taylor, with five minutes allotted to Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group and five minutes allotted to Her Majesty’s government.

I thank the members for their eloquent tributes as together we give thanks for the life and public service of Margaret Birch.

Today, we are honoured to remember and pay tribute to a former member of our provincial Legislature, the late Mr. James A. Taylor, who was the MPP for Prince Edward–Lennox during the 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd Parliaments.

Joining us today in the Speaker’s gallery are some of Mr. Taylor’s family: his children, Cynthia Taylor Huff, Kim Taylor and Jim Taylor; his daughter-in-law, Sue Taylor; his granddaughters, Kaitlyn Taylor and Taylor Huff; and his granddaughter’s partner, Mark Badrov.

Also in the Speaker’s gallery is Mr. David Warner, who was the Speaker during the 35th Parliament.

I recognize the member for Ottawa West–Nepean.

It is an honour to rise in the House on behalf of the official opposition and all people of Ontario to pay tribute to James Allan Taylor, a former member of the Legislature.

James was born in 1928 in Timmins, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto, then studied law at Osgoode Hall, and then immediately embarked on a long career of public service in Ontario, serving from 1951 to 1957 with the borough of Scarborough. He worked his way up from an articling student to become a legal adviser and solicitor for the municipal corporation of Scarborough.

James was named a Queen’s counsel in 1963. He served as legal counsel to the Ontario Select Committee on Conservation Authorities in Ontario from 1965 to 1967. During this time, he moved to Prince Edward County and eventually purchased property in South Bay, where he settled into life in this community.

In the 1968 election, James ran as a candidate for the federal Progressive Conservative Party in Scarborough East. Although he was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the House of Commons, he persisted in his electoral pursuits, running in the 1971 provincial election in Prince Edward–Lennox. He served the people of Prince Edward–Lennox continuously for 17 years, winning four elections during that time.

During his time in this assembly, James held a variety of positions and was a strong and effective parliamentarian. He served on all of the standing committees and a number of select committees.

In 1975, Premier Bill Davis appointed James as the Minister of Community and Social Services. Davis tasked James with reining in spending in community and social services, but James quickly learned about the complexity of the issues in the portfolio and shifted to advocacy. In particular, the challenges facing seniors prompted him to advocate for a 5.5% funding increase for community organizations that supported seniors. He also funded 27 pilot projects across the province, with the goal of delivering care for seniors through the use of community organizations. In his home riding of Prince Edward–Lennox, this pilot project facilitated the coordination and collaboration of nearly 20 local groups. This project became the genesis of the Prince Edward County Community Care for Seniors Association, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017. James has had a lasting impact on community supports for seniors across Ontario.

In 1977 and 1978, James served as the Minister of Energy, leading the government’s restructuring of public utility commissions.

Prior to the 1987 election, James announced that he would not be seeking re-election as an MPP. This announcement was met with appreciative remarks about James from across the political spectrum. Liberal MPP Larry South of Frontenac–Addington remarked that “NDP people even liked him,” and went on to say, “You always knew where Jim was coming from.... Everyone seemed to have such admiration for him and for the way he always put forth his case. Jim was such a classy guy, no rancor and no personal attacks.”

Despite near-universal admiration, there may have been one person who was a little less impressed. James once quipped that “behind all successful men, you will probably find a very surprised mother-in-law.”

James did not stay away from public life for long. His devotion to his community and his neighbours led him to run for mayor of the newly amalgamated Prince Edward county in 1998. He served as mayor until 2003, helping to shape 11 formerly independent municipalities into one cohesive government.

His decision in 2003 to leave municipal politics was motivated by his love for and desire to be with his family. James was a very family-oriented individual. His wife, Mary Marguerite, was his best friend. He once noted that Mary was indispensable to him on grueling campaign trails, as he relied on her for inspiration and energy.

He was a father of four and grandfather of 10, and I want to take a moment to recognize members of James’ family who are here with us today and watching us. Cynthia, Kim, Jim, Sue, Kaitlyn, Taylor and Mark, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for sharing your father and grandfather with us.

Throughout his career, James demonstrated a commitment to the principles of democratic governance and meaningful participation in civic life. He passed away on September 1, 2020, at 92 years of age. He leaves behind a commendable legacy, and his family, friends and community should be so proud of his accomplishments and contributions.

On behalf of all members, I would like to thank James for his service and offer his family and loved ones our sincere condolences.

Good morning, everyone. I want to thank my colleagues across the aisle for their kind remarks about Mr. Taylor and all of the other members that we’ve recognized here today. This is such a great tradition that we have in the Legislature now, to honour our former members, and everybody has spoken very eloquently this morning.

Before I begin my remarks, I just want to say that I believe our collective thoughts are with Queen Elizabeth this morning as well. Hopefully, she is resting peacefully at Balmoral Castle.

I’m really honoured to see the Taylor family here this morning. We’re missing Cynthia, I believe, but I see Kim and I see James Jr. there, and I see a number of other people. It’s great to have you here with us today.

Jim was somebody I knew pretty well, having now been the member—not a spotted dog—for Bay of Quinte and Prince Edward–Hastings for 11 years. Jim was one of the guys who paved the way and he had a great career here at Queen’s Park. He was a great consensus-builder who discovered Prince Edward county in his travels. As we heard, he adopted it as his home and served its people for the rest of his life—including being elected to this House by the residents of Prince Edward–Lennox five separate times between 1971 and 1987.

He grew up in Timmins as the middle child in his family. He headed to Toronto for higher education, as many northerners did at that time, ultimately graduating from law school at Osgoode Hall in 1953. He was not only tough to best in the courtroom in those days, he also loved to box, and he was a championship wrestler and brought a title to the University of Toronto Blues back in his collegiate days. Of course, he linguistically wrestled many of his opponents for 17 years here on the floor of the Legislature—and I know he especially loved to wrestle the members of the NDP to the ground during his time here at the Legislature.

It was through the law that James got into public service and spent most of his life there. He started the legal department at the city of Scarborough, managed its affairs for a time before becoming a Queen’s Counsel.

Perhaps it was our region’s good fortune that he lost that federal election in Scarborough back in the early 1970s, because after that, he decided that he would move to Prince Edward county, and he had all the success there. He found some farmland in the county and adjusted to local life by raising beef cattle in South Marysburgh, one of the beautiful parts of Prince Edward county indeed.

Within three years, he had won his first election by a 3,000-vote margin, and as a backbench member of the Bill Davis-led government here at Queen’s Park, he sunk his teeth into committee work related to public accounts, justice, and natural resources.

Following his first re-election in 1975, it was at that point that he got that familiar phone call to serve in the cabinet as Minister of Community and Social Services. He once recalled to the Gazette that he thought that Premier Davis liked him because he was a tough, no-nonsense person who could make the difficult decisions needed in that era of rising inflation. In getting into the portfolio, he discovered that he had an opportunity to really shape social programming to make lives easier for Ontarians. He started a series of community-based pilot programs, as we heard, including one in Prince Edward county, to provide services for seniors living in their communities—what has now grown to become, in most parts of the province, Community Care for Seniors. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary in Prince Edward county. I would say that the Honourable James A. Taylor is responsible for that great program that exists in many of our communities across the province today. They’re beloved in Prince Edward county, offering Meals on Wheels, rides to appointments, social inclusion and recreation, and they were incredibly valuable during the recent pandemic, for the last two and a half years.

After his time at the Ministry of Community and Social Services, he did step into the energy portfolio in a challenging period. Canada faced an energy challenge with skyrocketing oil prices and supply shortages. He was a stern advocate for affordability, and he stepped down from his post when he felt that the House wasn’t doing enough to meet the challenge posed.

As the MPP for Prince Edward–Lennox, Jim continued to work hard in this place for his constituents for close to a decade, warning about inflationary costs and, again, sinking his teeth into committee work and advocating for his community.

The member from Kingston noted that he fought very hard for the Picton Arena when it burned down. There’s a great story behind that. I won’t bore you with the details today, but it is a great story about how he went to bat for his community and the arena.

He also spent time as the parliamentary assistant to the Honourable Frank Miller on the industry and trade file, and that allowed an opportunity to see the world. He travelled all around the world, bringing the Ontario message to countries everywhere.

After deciding not to run again in 1987, Jim enjoyed retirement with his wife and his children, Kim, Cynthia, James Jr. and Timothy, at their North Port home on the north shore of Prince Edward county on the Bay of Quinte. I know those family dinners at the dining room table were incredibly important and a great memory for the family members, of course, because it was there where Jim would also hold court. He had a great sense of humour and a dry wit and was a very, very knowledgeable person. I can just picture the family sitting around the table and the great memories they must have of those family dinners.

But he wasn’t retired for long. He felt that calling to public service, and an unusual opportunity presented itself in Prince Edward county. The legislated municipal amalgamations of 1998 would bring all of those separate communities in Prince Edward county together, and there was a change in the way that services were going to be offered and paid for. Who better to lead this new municipality as its first mayor than Jim Taylor, with all of the experience he had at Queen’s Park and also in Scarborough? He had the resolve to bring people together in consensus and the strength to demand professionalism. He was that pro at the table.

I was just talking to Kevin Gale, who was a long-time councillor, last night, about Jim. Kevin said, “Jim was the right man for the job, period,” at that time. And as the first mayor of the new municipality of Prince Edward county, he served two terms there. He also lent his experience on the finance resources committee and other economic bodies, and that’s when I first met him. I was a young member of the local media there, and Jim was super accessible as the mayor, always advocating for his community and always had great humour and a joke.

Years later, in 2011, I’m running in my first election, and being the good Tory that he is, he was at the campaign office opening in 2011, and he was there in 2014, and he was there in 2018 as well. A great sense of humour—same jokes every campaign, but they always went over extremely well with the crowd that was gathered there. Just a super supporter, and Mary was always at his side at these campaign office openings.

He was always there, and I remember visiting him at his home in Picton, and offering great advice and support to me during this time. I think we all have mentors in our lives, and I would say that Jim Taylor was one of those people for me. I’ve paid tribute to other former members like Doug Rollins and others that have passed, in my riding—Bud Gregory, the “Mississauga rattler,” as he was known in this place—who were great mentors. But Jim Taylor certainly was one of those people.

And I can tell you that in 2022, when we had our campaign office open, Jim wasn’t there, of course, because he passed in 2020, and it just wasn’t the same. There was something missing at our campaign office opening this time.

Jim did a fabulous job and was a great, great leader in our community for many, many, many years. I had the opportunity this summer—and the family members were there and Jim Jr. was actually speaking at that time. We were up at Macaulay Mountain in Picton and opened a special millennium project there in honour of James A. Taylor. It’s a lookout where you can see over not just downtown Picton, but you can see all over the county from this site that’s named in honour of Jim Taylor.

It was a great day, and Mayor Ferguson, the current mayor of Prince Edward county, and other council members were there to dedicate this park and lookout in his honour. It was there I joked about the similarities with Jim Taylor and another famous James Taylor, who was obviously huge in the 1970s. Member Yakabuski could probably sing a few of his tunes if I asked him to because he has 6,000 songs in his head. But the singer James Taylor aptly described a politician’s life in one of his hit songs:

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain

I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I’d see you again

I think so many of us in this Legislature can relate to that. There are great days and there are lonely days as well in this job. His other big hit was You’ve Got a Friend. As was mentioned, he had friends on all sides of the aisles. He had some spirited debates in this House, Mr. Speaker, but at the end of the day, there was always a smile and a handshake. It was all in making the province a better place.

So to the family members who are here and to those who will be watching this, I want to say thank you to the family of Jim Taylor—a great member of the Legislature, an amazing first mayor for the beautiful county, Prince Edward county, where many of us go to visit, especially during the summertime, but all around the year now. It’s because of his great work that Prince Edward county is what it is today, and because of his great work on files at social services and also at energy, our province is in a better position today as well.

I just want to thank all of you for sharing your father and grandfather with us. His leadership meant a world of difference to the people of Ontario and the people of Prince Edward county. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you for your kind words.

Applause.

It’s an honour to rise to say a few words of tribute to the Honourable Mr. James A. Taylor, member of provincial Parliament for Prince Edward–Lennox from 1971 to 1987.

While writing this tribute about Mr. Taylor, one thing became very apparent: He was an extremely hard worker and took nothing for granted. Mr. Taylor was a candidate in many elections, and unlike most people who run, he had the good fortune of being victorious on numerous occasions. As all of us in this chamber can agree, that type of good fortune requires a lot of dedication and hard work, especially since Mr. Taylor’s first kick at the can didn’t end up the way he hoped. But perseverance and dedication seemed to be in his nature. Trying again, he was successful in his next five elections, even in a riding where, as one newspaper put it, “You could run a spotted dog or a hydro pole and as long as it was a Tory, they would still win.” Mr. Taylor worked diligently to ensure he earned the trust of his constituents, knocking on doors, talking to his neighbours, and not taking anything for granted.

Representing our constituents and our neighbours is a privilege, something that should be taken with the utmost responsibility. James Taylor lived by that rule every day. Not only did he have a reputation of being a loyal and dedicated public servant, he had a great track record of growing his community, and not only getting results for his constituents but for all of Ontario. From improving arenas in small-town Ontario, where that can mean the world, to leading overseas trade missions, as a backbencher and a member of cabinet, James Taylor was always working for Ontarians.

He was also an avid traveller, and because of his keen interest in local governance, Mr. Taylor had a broad knowledge of international affairs, an area he was always passionate about.

Outside of his professional life, Mr. Taylor was inseparable from the outdoors. He liked to spend much of his time with his family: skiing, boating, hunting and fishing. Mr. Speaker, as someone who represents a neighbouring riding, I can see why Mr. Taylor loved the outdoors so much. Prince Edward county, even to this day, is absolutely stunning no matter what time of year.

I’d like to thank his family. James was husband to Mary Marguerite, father to Kim, Cynthia and Jim, grandfather to Kaitlyn and Taylor, many of whom are here in the Legislature today with all of us. Thank you for sharing him with us.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to say a few words of tribute on behalf of the Ontario Liberal caucus in honour of Mr. Taylor.

I thank the members for their eloquent tributes as together we give thanks for the life and public service of Jim Taylor.

Orders of the day?

The House recessed from 0955 to 1015.