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Village Squire, 1975-03, Page 4The three members from Western Ontario It's a tough task taking on The Big Blue Machine, the bureaucrats, and the time clock If a dozen years ago someone had suggested I'd be sitting in a deserted diningroom of a Huron county hotel having coffee with three local Members of the Provincial Legislature all of whom were Liberals, he'd probably be laughed out of the province. After all, Ontario was a Tory province, had been for more than 20 years and seemed likely to remain so. And western Ontario, particularly the Huron, Perth, Bruce county area was as Tory blue as you'd ever get. •But the subtle change in the public opinion in the area began to become apparent in October of 1962. John Hanna, who had held the Huron -Bruce riding for longer than some younger people could remember, died and the riding was up for grabs. The Conservatives named George McCutcheon of Brussels, a former Huron county warden and a man who appeared to be in a good position to continue the Conservative reign in the riding. The Liberals nominated a young man who was a former Queen's Guinefts winner in 4H work, a graduate of the University of Guelph and who was widely known as the farm editor at CKNX television. In an area where elections had been foregone conclusions for many years, an exciting election race suddenly erupted. The result was a speaker, and a bit of a shocker. The young liberal, Murray Gaunt, pulled an upset, though a close one. The result was even closer in 1973 when a regular general election took place and McCutcheon again challenged. But in the end, after recounts, Gaunt won. That same 1963 general election saw a young Mitchell businessman, Hugh Edig- hogger take his first stab at provincial politics. It seemed a hopeless case. Here was a young inexperienced Liberal against Fred Edwards of Palmerston who had held the Perth riding for nearly 20 years. In 1963 it WAS a hopeless task, but Edighoffer wasn't discouraged and tried again in 1967. This time the impossible was accomplished and Hugh Edighoffer was the new member of Parliament. The most recent upset is still fresh in the 2, VILLAGE SQUIRE/MARCH 1975 minds of many in the area. Long-time cabinet minister Charles McNaughton decided to retire to the security of a past on the Ontario Racing Commission. It seemed to be almost a routine.matter for a handover of power to his executive assistant Don Southcott, a former Exeter newspaper publisher. •Southcott had been being groomed for the position for several years. There were even rumours that a cabinet post waited in the wings for him. He was heir apparent from the day of the first announcement of MacNaughton that he would retire. The Liberals, meanwhile, were going through their usual act of trying to pull a candidate out of the hat. The platform on the nomination night in Hensall, was nearly as crowded as the public school auditorium, which was packed. There were plenty of candidates, but none was well-known. One stood out. He had an organized campaign that had signs plastered around the auditorium. He spoke confidently while the others seemed hesitant. His voice boomed out so that the microphones were hardly needed. His name was Jack Riddell but many present didn't even know how to pronounce the name (as in riddle) let alone know much about the man. His press material said he was a school teacher and part-time businessman. He made an impressive showing, so that it was obvious from the start he would be the winner of the nomination but it seemed too much to expect this virtual -unknown to come close to the smooth, professionally polished Don South- cott. And there was also the fact that young Paul Carroll, a Goderich school teacher running for the N.D.P. was likely to split the anti-government vote. But between nomination night and election night, something mysterious happened. There was obviously a large amount of discontent in the riding over the govern- ment's policies of centralization in both education and municipal reorganization. But Riddell seemed to have a certain charisma that attracted friends wherever he went. For him everything went right. For Don Southcott, meanwhile, everything went wrong. Typical was the fact that when Premier Davis and a group of representatives of the Big Blue Machine flew into Goderich airport to lend support to Southcott, the plane skidded off -the icy runway and into a snow bank where it sat for several weeks before it could be repaired. The campaign went on and the rumours of upset grew. But no one was brave enough to predict the eventual result: a 300 -vote majority for the Liberal in a riding that had gone Conservative by 6,000 votes in the previous election. The victory, coupled with another the same night in Toronto by Margaret Campbell in another former Tory riding bouyed up the Liberal party and -persuaded Robert Nixon to stay on as party leader. Two subsequent by-elections saw another Liberal win and one by .the N.D.P. The Liberals started to see themselves as possible winners of an election expected this year, and the Conservatives started feeling their necks for the first time in 30 years. But back to the men who have turned solid Tory support in midwestern Ontario into solid Opposition territory. We're having coffee in a Clinton hotel diningroom in mid-morning a week after the perrogation of the Legislature. They're joking back and forth the way students do after vacation. They're compar- ing notes on hints of wherti the budget may come down. What, I asked them, was the hardest thing to adjust to on going from being an ordinary member of society to being a member of Parliament. "1 think the most difficult thing for me," Mr. Gaunt began, "was the learning process. You're thrust into the situation where all of a sudden you have people coming to you to look after constituency problems of one nature or another and you've got to be able to get the the answer and you've got to know the people whom you have to go within the government and you've also got to learn the procedures in the House. You've got to get the feel of 'the system.' It really took me about two years before I felt at home. "If you have a problem with Workmen"s Compensation, for instance, it took a while to know who to go to. It was a trial and error kind of thing."