Bill Murdoch the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Member of Provincial Parliament and self proclaimed “Mayor of Bognor” held a press conference at his Owen Sound office on Monday to announce that he will not seek re-election in 2011.
Murdoch told reporters and an office full of supporters and well-wishers that the time had come for him to pack it in, and he wanted to announce his intentions early enough to allow for a new Progressive Conservative candidate to be found for the riding.
It is expected that the BGOS PC's will have a nomination meeting on October 6th of this year after which a candidate will be in place.
With his wife Susan at his side, Murdoch remained composed though at times he was visibly holding back a tear as he discussed his 33 year political career that has included 12 years in municipal politics, and when his current term ends, 21 years as an MPP.
The man who is known to many as “Bognor Bill”, or “Wild Bill” has made many friends and a few enemies in those 33 years, but Murdoch says that through it all he feels that his greatest contribution has been helping his constituents to find their way through bureaucratic red tape.
“When I go to different events there is always someone who comes up to me and says they want to thank me for all the work that myself and my staff have done. I have had great staff,” said Murdoch, “I think that is the biggest accomplishment- if you can go away knowing that you did help somebody.”
Murdoch said that his biggest frustration in his years in the legislature is the realization that we have a flawed democracy in our province and country.
“There is not the democracy that we think we have in Canada,” began Murdoch, “This is the best place in the world to be but, and I stand by this, we elect dictators. There is no doubt about it.”
The maverick MPP argues that provincial Premiers and the Prime Minister of Canada are given far too much power, and ultimately are able to exercise their own will and agenda in spite of the appearance of a democratically elected caucus.
“It is because we in Canada have collectively given them too much power,” said Murdoch.
He will remain in office until the next election, and when asked what voters should be looking for in their first new MPP in 21 years, Murdoch was frank and to the point.
“I would be asking the candidates 'are you going to do what the people want you to do, or what your leader tells you you have to do to do for the party?', because, we used to do that, it's called representative democracy, which they still have in England, but we don't have it in Canada anymore, we have party democracy,” Murdoch said.
Famous for his quarrels with his own party leaders, Murdoch made a career out of standing his ground for his constituents no matter what his party leadership wanted him to do or say. Most recently that insistence on remaining true to the ideals of democratic representation found Murdoch at odds with PC Leader John Tory and resulted in his ousting from caucus and for a brief period Murdoch sat as an Independent in the legislature. He was welcomed back to the Conservative caucus after Tory was no longer leader of the party.
“I've done everything I can do,” offered Murdoch of his time at Queen's Park, “I've sat as a third party, I've sat in opposition, I've sat as government, and I've even sat as in independent, so I've done all of those things,” Murdoch continued, “I've been asked to leave the house and left, I've been asked to leave and didn't leave, so there's not a lot left to do,” Murdoch said garnering laughs throughout his office.
While his political career may be drawing to a close, Murdoch says that he has plenty ahead of him to keep him busy including helping out around the family farm, participating in the many service clubs to which he belongs, and he said also that he might even attempt to have some mid winter extended vacations.
He also feels proud of what he did, and what he stood for.
“If you didn't do anything, then people would call you a 'do nothing', but I always thought that you had to do what you thought was right, and what you thought most of the people in your riding wanted you to do,” said Murdoch.
When asked why there weren't more 'Bill Murdochs' in government who were willing to operate in the same way as Murdoch has done all these years, Murdoch said that he was unsure.
“I don't really know. It's harder to do it my way I think, because you can shut up and say nothing, and then you might become a (cabinet) minister, or you might get this or that, but that isn't why I thought I got elected. If I'm going to do something, and that is what I said I'm going to do, then that's what I'm going to do,” offered Murdoch.
“When I first got elected I only made one promise, and that was to take the voice of my riding to Queen's Park, not bring their voice back, and I've tried to live that code all along. Why aren't there more Bill Murdoch's? You'd have to ask the members (of the legislature) that.”
