HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-11-06, Page 7After almost 30 years in
politics, former Huron-Bruce
MP Paul Steckle says he
looks back on his time serving
the public with great pride.
Just a few weeks shy of 15
years as MP, Steckle saw his
and the Liberal Party’s long-
time hold on the riding come
to an end last month.
Controversial to say the
least, Steckle was never afraid
to reach across party lines or
to speak his mind and in
retirement, his honesty is still
healthy as a horse.
Looking back, he says
every politician, at every level
would benefit from first
serving in municipal politics,
saying he believes very
strongly in that.
Over the years Steckle has
had more than a few
controversial stances on
subjects such as gun control,
capital punishment, abortion
and same-sex marriage.
His political life has been so
decorated and dramatic, it has
warranted a written account,
penned by his campaign
manager and assistant, Greg
McClinchey called Stickin’To
His Guns, A Through-The-
Keyhole Look At Mr. Paul
Daniel Steckle.
His stance on abortion,
specifically late-term abortion
is one of the issues Steckle
was not able to see resolved
before he left parliament.
He says he feels it’s
unacceptable that Canada is
the only country in the free
world without a law on
abortion and specifically late-
term abortion.
“I’m proud to have served
and I feel good about the time
I’ve spent there, while I didn’t
get everything done I wanted
to do, I’m not one bit
ashamed of what I did and I
think I set an example which
perhaps has helped others see
government in a different
way, in which people go there
to serve the people. I think we
have go there bringing the
thoughts of the people of the
constituency to Ottawa rather
than the reverse.”
He is, however, comfortable
with when he left office.
“My stepping-down had
nothing to do with this
election and what might have
been the outcome,” he said.
“It had everything to do with
something that I had in my
plans a long time ago. In fact,
had the circumstances been
right, I might have left one
term sooner.”
Despite his skepticism
about the Conservativegovernment, Steckle remainsoptimistic about Canada as awhole.“Canada is going to bearound for a very long timebecause it has a great history
and it’s going to make great
history in the future. I don’t
have any doubts that down the
road we’re going to see this
country as it already is, it’s
out-performing many of the
G-7 countries and I think that
in itself speaks to what
Canada is all about,” he said.
Steckle says he’s going to
miss making the big
decisions, but not the baggage
that often comes with public
life.
In the coming months and
years he hopes to continue
work on his home and
continue his extensive
scrapbooking project that
spans his entire career.
Over the course of his
career, he had faced worthy
adversaries and had overcome
them all, he said. Steckle has
never lost an election.
As upset as Steckle might
be, politically, about the
Huron-Bruce results, he says
the election was also a very
severe blow to him personally
because of his close
relationship with candidate
Greg McClinchey.
“It was sort of like passing
the mantle in this election,” he
said. “For me it was like
seeing my son take over the
family farm and somehow,
something has failed, and in
that respect I felt like I had
also failed.”
Steckle said he didn’t feel
he had failed in choosing a
successor, but that he and
McClinchey had just simply
come up short.
“[McClinchey] ran a very
busy campaign and he
couldn’t have done any more
than he did. In fact, I had to
tell him to slow down from
time to time or he would have
burnt out,” he said.
“I guess I take exception to
the elected member now
[Conservative Ben Lobb] who
makes the comment that some
are showhorses and some are
workhorses and that some go
around cutting ribbons and
attending gala dinners. Mr.
Lobb will find out that in his
work as a member of
parliament, if he wants to do
the bidding of his
constituency, he’s going to be
doing some ribbon-cutting,
hopefully, and he’ll also be
attending a lot of gala
dinners.”
Steckle says that despite the
outcome of the election, he
feels this was the right time
for him to retire, saying he
was in a unique position to
decide when he would retire
and not have an election do it
for him.
Despite his popularity in
Huron-Bruce and the large
issues Canada is set to face in
coming years with possible
deficits and even a recession
forecasted by some in the
future, Steckle has never
second-guessed his decision
to step down, even after the
Liberals lost their hold on the
riding.
“I don’t think it would have
been any different. In fact, I
think Greg might have done
better than I would have,” he
said. “I think he did as well asanyone could have done inthis riding, given thecircumstances.”McClinchey agrees, sayingthat as he was campaigning,he found people tended to like
him, but that he found
resistance to Dion.
McClinchey, whose paid
job was as Paul Steckle’s
campaign manager and
assistant, is now pondering
his options. As Steckle is no
longer in office and neither is
McClinchey, he says he and
his family have had to explore
“Plan B.”
While McClinchey faces a
possible job-hunt, he plans to
stay on as a Blyth councillor
on North Huron council.
He has not ruled out
returning to the Liberal Party
to run again, this is however,dependent on his futureemployment, which he pointsout, much to his dismay,might take him out of HuronCounty.Steckle said he hoped to not
be labeled as a “bitter, old
man” but that he was indeed
angry at how the election
turned out and how he feels
Canadians arrived at their
decisions.
“[The Liberal Party was]
just made out to be crooks and
criminals. The fact that we
balanced books after some
terrible Mulroney economics,
it never really surfaced and
resonated with people,” he
said. “They had made up their
minds, they were going to get
rid of the Liberals, but the fact
that Mr. [Stephen] Harper ran
against a party that appearedin every respect to be weak,he still couldn’t come outwith a majority government.”Steckle said the campaignwas difficult to watch becauseof the scrutiny Dion had come
under just after the election
had been called.
“This was probably the
most-difficult election I’ve
ever been though, even more
difficult than my own
elections because of what I
saw happening,” Steckle said.
“I saw a leader who came out
of the leadership bastardized
as soon as he came out of the
gate. He won that and
immediately the Conservative
Party set about to destroy the
man.”
He said that while other
candidates recited federal
party policy at all-candidatesmeetings, McClinchey hadprepared his own policymanual, which he almostnever got to use. Steckleinsisted a campaign in whichjust over half of the country
comes out to vote, cannot be
about the issues.
“I’m not even sure that
people cared about the issues
because when 60 per cent of
the people go out and vote,
where are the other 40 per
cent?” he said.
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2008. PAGE 7.Steckle looks with pride on political career
PAUL STECKLE
A Canadian maverick
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
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