I’d like to welcome the family of the late MPP Gord Miller: son Doug Miller, along with his wife, Flora; grandsons Jamie Miller and Geoff Addis; granddaughter Meghan Haughton and her husband, David, as well as their children, Brynn and Mason. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Clark moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 23, An Act to amend various statutes, to revoke various regulations and to enact the Supporting Growth and Housing in York and Durham Regions Act, 2022 / Projet de loi 23, Loi modifiant diverses lois, abrogeant divers règlements et édictant la Loi de 2022 visant à soutenir la croissance et la construction de logements dans les régions de York et de Durham.

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

The member for Scarborough–Guildwood.

Today, we are honoured to remember and pay tribute to a former member of our Legislature, the late Mr. Gordon Irvin Miller, who was the MPP for Haldimand–Norfolk during the 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd Parliaments and for Norfolk during the 34th Parliament.

Joining us in the Speaker’s gallery today are Mr. Miller’s family: his son Doug Miller; his daughter-in-law Flora Miller; his grandchildren Jamie Miller, Geoff Addis and Meghan Haughton; his grandson-in-law David Haughton; and his great-grandchildren Brynn Haughton and Mason Haughton. Welcome.

The member for Oxford.

It’s truly an honour today to be able to rise and pay tribute to Gordon Miller on behalf of the official opposition. I’d like to welcome his family here today and thank them for his service.

When I was asked to do this, I wondered—and as soon as I started doing the research, I knew why I was asked: because in the parliamentary record, his occupation is listed as a farmer. And if my occupation is listed some day as a farmer, it will be the proudest day of my life. I would like to commend him for that.

It’s already been described—I’m not going to go through it again—the long list of things that Mr. Miller did. So I’m going to use a few quotes. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but there are a few interesting quotes from people who did know him.

From a former Premier, David Peterson: “He was a specialist on rural and community issues. He knew everybody. He was just the quintessential good neighbour”—because he was a farmer. People who aren’t from a farming community might not know it, but farmers are very competitive: Who has the nicest crops? Who has the most milk per cow? But when something happens, they gel and help each other. They are all quintessential good neighbours. I have never met a farmer I didn’t like. They don’t always agree with me and I didn’t always agree with them, but farmers are quintessential good neighbours.

Another quote from Mr. Peterson: “He could crush you with his big hands. You look at him and there’s a farmer.” Well, we all—farmers all have interesting hands. But I’m sure that every farm community has got a couple of people who have those big hands. When they get you in a handshake, you can just feel the power. I’m sure Mr. Miller was one of those. Something—I’m just doing this anecdotally—I have never met someone with that huge handshake who wasn’t a really friendly person. But sometimes—I have to describe this handshake, and I’m sure Mr. Miller has done this: It’s the friendly handshake, but if they want to send a bit of a message, it’s a bit painful. I’m sure that Mr. Miller did that too.

Another one from Mr. Peterson: “If you ever thought he was a bumbling farmer you were wrong because he ... was one guy in my caucus who would tell me I was full of baloney.” Now, when I read that the first time, I thought: Okay, who does Mr. Peterson think a bumbling farmer is? But anyway, I think what he was trying to say is that farmers aren’t all parliamentarians and aren’t all diplomatic, but they are very direct. They’re take-charge people. They want to get things done. They deal with nature, so they understand they’re not going to win every battle, but they understand they have to fight every day. And those are qualities that farmers like Mr. Miller, I’m sure, brought to this House.

I would like to close with something that I read: He passed away peacefully in front of his fireplace just three days short of his 97th birthday, on his farm, on the road named after him, the Gordon Miller Trail. And with all of those accomplishments, the whole list of accomplishments, his greatest was that he was a farmer. That is a life well lived.

And you can’t be a farmer alone; a farmer takes a family. Thank you very much for sharing Mr. Miller with us.

It’s an honour to stand here today on behalf of our Ontario Liberal caucus to pay tribute to Mr. Gordon Irvin Miller, Liberal MPP for the riding of Norfolk from 1975 to 1990. And we all heard that right: 1975 to 1990, a Liberal MPP in Norfolk. That in itself probably says a lot about Gord Miller.

Now, I obviously never had a chance to meet Mr. Miller, but you get to know people by going through articles and talking to other people. I know that he was raised by his family in Jarvis, Ontario, and he and his brothers, Bruce and Bob, took over the farm from their father. Fittingly, as we said earlier, that farm is on the road that’s named after him, the Gordon Miller Trail.

He started his political career as a school board trustee in 1960, and he was a trustee from 1960 to 1967, followed by many years in municipal politics—town councillor from 1978 to 1981, reeve from 1971 to 1973, regional councillor from 1973 to 1975, and deputy mayor of the city of Nanticoke in 1975.

As if that wasn’t enough, when the residents of Haldimand–Norfolk weren’t happy about the two-tiered government that was pushed on to them by the Conservative government of the day, Mr. Miller decided to run in the 1975 provincial election to have his constituents’ voices heard at Queen’s Park. He went on to win by over 2,000 votes over incumbent MPP Jim Allan, who had held the riding for 23 years. He was re-elected in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1987, and served as the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Transportation.

From what I gather, he cared deeply about his community. He was a community builder. He was someone who wanted—and we’ve heard it here today—to make his community better, and the work was fun. That’s a good sign.

As the Hamilton Spectator puts it, Gord was “the quintessential good neighbour.” What a nice legacy.

Mr. Miller was named the 1990 Jarvis Citizen of the Year.

Again, as if all those other things weren’t enough, he was a Sunday school superintendent, member of the Haldimand–Norfolk United Way, advocate for Crime Stoppers and chair of the West Haldimand General Hospital Foundation. It was a life full of service that I won’t say is unmatched, but it’s up there, near the top of the kind of service that we’ve spoken about in this community, with some members here who have passed away.

Aside from being a politician, he was a big-time sports fan, a coach, a player, interested in baseball and hockey.

I think it’s really important, when someone serves 30 years in public service—and the family is here today—to thank the family for allowing their father and grandfather to serve his community. We all know that in that kind of service, it takes you away from the things that you—where you want to be, who you want to be with, sometimes. It’s a big sacrifice. It’s a big sacrifice for us as members, but it’s an even bigger sacrifice for our families,

So to his son Doug; daughter-in-law Flora; grandsons Jamie, Geoff and David; granddaughter Meghan; great-grandchildren Brynn and Mason, thank you.

And on behalf of the Ontario Liberal caucus, I want to thank Mr. Miller for dedicating his life to public service. Thank you.

Applause.