It’s an honour to be able to rise today and pay tribute to Douglas Jack Wiseman on behalf of the official opposition. He passed away on August 1, 2020, in his 91st year. As I was doing the research for Mr. Wiseman—I never had the opportunity to meet him, but I very much enjoyed doing the research. He had a long career of public service—but one stuck out to me that I didn’t think anyone else was going to talk about, and I think I would like to, in honour of him, talk about something that obviously he loved. He was, for a period, the chair of the eastern Ontario Charolais association, and in the 1960s and 1970s he bred many prize-winning Charolais cattle.

Just a brief history of Charolais cattle: They’re a beef breed that actually were introduced into Canada in 1959 and were recognized as an official breed in 1960 in Canada. So to be a breeder of prize-winning Charolais in the 1960s and 1970s—that was groundbreaking.

Not everybody here is going to know what a Charolais cow looks like. If you’re driving down a country road and you see a beautiful herd of almost-white, tan beef cattle, likely those are Charolais, and many other beef cattle have been influenced, because Charolais bulls were often used in British beef breeds to put—for lack of a better word—more meat on them. If you think that politics is partisan, you should get into a meeting talking about whether Charolais, Herefords or Angus are the best breed. I am sure that Mr. Doug Wiseman was heavily involved in that, being a part of the Charolais association.

But to be there that early is incredible, and prize-winning bulls and prize-winning cattle at that time—it’s still a really tough business, but now there’s DNA testing, genomics. But back then, it was a true art to be able to raise a prize-winning show animal which would later develop the whole breed. That’s something that was really important to him, and I think it’s something that should be mentioned in this House.

In his career in the Legislature from 1971 to 1990, one of his many roles—he was Minister of Government Services, and he, according to media reports, identified some issues in his ministry for which he lost his portfolio. He identified issues that needed to be identified—and, not trying to be partisan, but sometimes the biggest fights, regardless of party, are within the party. He identified them and lost his portfolio and kept identifying issues that needed to be corrected. That’s something that should be also recognized. Coming from a farm—farmers aren’t the only honest people, but farmers are pretty honest. I think that should be recognized, too—for what he did.

When he retired, he sold shoes—and that became a chain of shoe stores. He did that, and his own community recognized the quality of person he was.

He had a long career in many levels of politics and spent many of his years here.

He made a great contribution to agriculture. I don’t think you can do much more with your life than that in 90 years.

I would like to thank his family for sharing him, not only with the province, but with the agricultural sector—sharing his talents with the rest of us. It was a life well lived. Thank you.