As I, like everyone else, navigate my way through the month of October, I periodically gaze in wonder at the picturesque majesty of nature, especially as it presents itself right here in the Ottawa Valley. We are truly blessed with a landscape that is unsurpassed by any other place in the province. Other places have their beauty as well, to be sure, but I don’t need to go out anywhere seeking anything better than what I have right here at home.
What an introduction for a story about a politician.
I just stumbled across the realization that my local MPP, John Yakabuski, is celebrating, or ought to be celebrating, his twenty-first year in office as our riding representative at Queen’s Park. I shouldn’t have needed a reminder of that, and I regret that I did, but here I am now.
On October 2, 2003, Mr. Yakabuski won his first election here in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, the first of many. And I had a great seat for all of this, as I was a key member of the Liberal campaign of Derek Nighbor that ran against him. He beat us by 645 votes, and I was crushed. In 2007, clearly not learning my lesson, I was a key player for the Sean Kelly Liberal campaign that went up against the man from Barry’s Bay, only to be crushed again, not just in the loss but by the sheer magnitude of the loss. Doubly crushed I would put it.
John Yakabuski would have no reason to give me the time of day if he were like many others, and I understand that. Especially in today’s hyper-partisan environment, that would be a legitimate assumption for a guy like me to make about someone in his position, and I’d understand that completely.
But that’s not who the man is.
This gentleman has served this riding indefatigably and nobly for the past two decades and is now entering his third, with a list of achievements too lengthy to detail here. But to cut to the point: I’m proud to be represented by this individual at Queen’s Park.
In a time when politicians fall all over themselves to make themselves appear as indispensable champions of the power base that elected them, John, with his inherent dignity, compassion, and dedication to duty, has quietly and without any self-produced fanfare, gone about the business of being, well, an indispensable champion, not just to the many voters who put him there, but as well to those who didn’t, either by voting for someone else or not voting at all.
This is not something that can be taken for granted with any human being, and even less so for politicians. But Mr. Yakabuski is the kind of politician that we need more of, the kind that recognizes that we all have value, and our differences of political approach ought not to be the reason for us to divide ourselves into opposing camps of hostility. He doesn’t present this way because it’s smart politics. He presents this way because he’s John Yakabuski.
Politics is often a messy affair, and it gets personal, and it’s hard to be above that, but there he is, above that. Naturally so, because that’s who he is. And he will respect an opponent because he realizes that most candidates are fabulous Canadians, as he is, and that when the clash of political views is settled at the ballot box, he would be the kind of guy to phone you up the next day and ask you how you were doing. That folks, is above and beyond what we see today, but that’s just who the man is. When I cast my vote otherwise, it wasn’t because of any issue with him, it had everything to do with the policies or policy proposals of his party.
I’ve been hanging out, one way or another, with politicians of all stripes for my entire adult life. I’ve worked for two different parties, with Conservatives actually being one of them at certain points. Despite being labelled as a “Liberal insider” in the media at one point, I am not a Liberal. I am an Ontarian, a taxpayer, and a voter, and will direct my efforts toward the person or group of people who most closely align with my views on what should be done and how. And so I have voted “against” Mr. Yakabuski in the early going, but did support him with my vote the last time out, pleased as I was with not just my local candidate but the party a whole. Premier Ford, despite the periodic episodes of bombast, brought the province through the COVID crisis admirably and I had no choice but to do the right thing and support both John and the Progressive Conservatives. Does this government do anything to make me cringe? Yes, absolutely. But, on balance, as I surveyed the political landscape, I had to support them if I’m serious about my own personal voting integrity. Plus, as far as Conservative governments go, we’re extremely fortunate to have one that is entirely distinct from any of their other Conservative counterparts west of the Manitoba border or represented by the wad of snot that is federal leader Pierre Poilievre.
Again, there’s no time and space adequate to list the achievements and positive impacts that John Yakabuski has had on our riding generally and in our communities specifically. But I will say this very important thing.
The incremental approach of a four-lane Trans-Canada Highway through our riding is not something that would be happening if it weren’t for Mr. Yakabuski. I am in no way overstating that his fingerprints are all over that, and had it not been for his positive and effective engagement on this issue, including bi-partisan engagement, we would not be getting ready for construction to begin to extend 417 to Renfrew. When John first came to office, that transportation artery was a different driving experience altogether, and that’s not meant in a flattering way. It was no artery. Rather, it was blocked capillary.
Twenty-one years is a long time in anything, even longer when you virtually work without complaint around the clock and every day of the week. That kind of grind, often with little thanks, will wear a person down and certainly make them cynical. I see no evidence of either out of John Yakabuski.
He qualified for his pension long ago, if there was one, because Mike Harris scrapped MPP pensions long ago. But if that’s what it was all about, we’d have some other Conservative MPP right now. But whoever that would have been, and all due respect to them, they would be no match for what we’ve had for those same twenty-one years.
Sort of like the view out my window.
And so, I say well-done to the man from Barry’s Bay. And Happy Anniversary!
NEWSMAGRENFREW 