Sometimes in the dog-eat-dog world of politics good is not good enough.
So it was in the 2018 Cornwall mayoral race in which Leslie O’Shaughnessy lost his bid for a second term. His record shows he deserved a better fate.
His third-place finish several thousand votes behind winner Bernadette Clement who commanded political rock star status demonstrated what a notoriously fickle lot voters can be.
Just four years earlier he had pulled off a huge upset by defeating Bob Kilger who was seeking a third term. The Kilger campaign with more money and workers under-estimated O’Shaughnessy. It was one of three major upsets in post-WW2 Cornwall mayoral races, the other others being Emile Menard’s crushing defeat of Cornwall’s longest-serving mayor Aaron Horovitz in 1956 and Ed Lumley’s win over Nick Kaneb and a powerful political machine in 1971.
Disappointing defeat as it was, O’Shaughnessy accepted the 2018 results with grace and dignity.
“I knew two weeks before election day that it didn’t look good (for me),” he told a colleague.
He was the quintessential grassroots politician who knew and understood the Ontario Municipal Act inside out. And when it came to running city hall, he embraced the Ronald Reagan philosophy: If you have good people, get out of the way and let them do their jobs.
He spearheaded the move to development charges that has built a financial nest egg for the city. He was a skilled negotiator when dealing with government bureaucrats, I saw this up close on the port lands file and a head-to-head meeting with Ontario finance minister Vic Fedeli at an AMO conference when he made a persuasive case for more funding.
He launched his municipal political career in Charlottenburgh Township in early 1990s and became reeve in 1995. In 1997 he was named United Counties warden.
When Cornwall reaped a multi-million dollar windfall – $68 million – with the sale of Cornwall Electric, which serviced part of his municipality, O’Shaughnessy said, “Just a minute, I think we deserve a slice of the pie.” Turned out, the neighbourng municipality was owed some of the proceeds.
In 2003, he moved to Cornwall and was elected to city council. In 2006 he put his name on the mayoral ballot but lost to Kilger who was coming off a long tenure as MP. He returned to council four years later but resigned in 2012 over what he claimed was a lack of accountability and transparency at city hall, particularly the mayor’s office.
When he challenged Kilger in 2014, he campaigned on the lack of accountability and transparency at city hall. It struck a chord with voters.
It was the third time he butted heads with Kilger in the political arena. In 1997 he was the federal Progressive Candidate in Stormont-Dundas. Kilger, who won by a comfortable margin, was the Liberal incumbent.
Doug Leighton, who served on counties council with O’Shaughnessy, said, “He no doubt was the most honest person I ever knew involved in local government.”
RIP Les.
____________
LOOKING BACK – The world’s only mass producer of hickory lacrosse sticks was experiencing an upswing in orders in post-WW2.
The factory on Cornwall Island had received orders for 2,730 dozen sticks in the first six months of 1948, 300 dozen more than in the same period in 1947.
The factory, which also made oars, paddles and walking sticks, employed 40 men and women.
The big challenge for the factory was finding hickory. Chisholm said he was logging 15,000 miles a year in the search for the 40 cords of hickory needed.
ALSO IN 1948 – Johnny Jacobs scored six goals as Hogansburg nipped Ottawa Ste. Anne’s 15-14 in an Eastern Ontario Senior Lacrosse League game. … Cornwall Township Police Commission gave police officers a 10% pay increase. Chief R. L. Giroux received $25 a month for use of his private vehicle for police business. … The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra performed before 2,000 at the Water Street Arena. Tickets were $2 each. … Entwistle Construction was contracted to build a new curling rink on Amelia Street for $23,000. … Cornwall City Band, first organized in the late 1800s by volunteer firefighters, was packing it in. Lack of members and rising costs were cited. … Stormont Agriculture Society launched a battle to halt the importation of olemargarine. It said the substitute for butter was a threat to the dairy industry. … Baseball legend Babe Ruth was laid to rest in New York City. The funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral held 6,000 mourners, with 25,000 crowded outside. The New York Police Department had 250 officers assigned to the funeral.
TRIVIA – When St. Lawrence High School opened in 1950, it became the first Ontario public high school to offer this course: 1) Sheet metal, 2) Portrait painting, 3) Agriculture, 4) Cooking, 5) Religion.
TRIVIA ANSWER – Phil Marchildon, a native of Penetanguishene, arrived in Cornwall in 1939 to pitch for the Cornwall Bisons of the Can-Am Baseball League, a class C fixture, before quickly climbing the ladder to the Majors where he pitched for Philadelphia Athletics (as they were called in the day) and Boston Red Sox. His record for the Cornwall squad was 6-and-0.
In 1942 he finished the season with a 17-14 record on a poor Philadelphia team that had just 40 wins. He left the Majors to enlist in the RCAF and served as a tail gunner on a Halifax bomber. His plane was shot down on his 26th mission and he spent the last nine months of the war in a prisoner of war camp. He and a fellow crew member were the only survivors.
After the war he rejoined the Athletics and posted a 19-9 record in the 1947 season. He suffered from what today is called post stress traumatic distress (PSTD) and retired in 1951.
In 1975 he was among the first Canadian Sports Hall of Fame inductees and in 1983 was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Standard-Freeholder sports writer Steve Dryden interviewed Marchildon at his Etobicoke home shortly after his induction to the baseball hall.
When asked what he remembered most about his short stint in Cornwall with the Bisons, Marchildon, with a laugh, said “That smell.”
QUOTED – “Democracy: Where two idiots out vote a genius.” – Unknown
ONE FINAL THING – Even the crooks are working from home. There was a police report the other day of a burglar breaking down his own front door.
