PUBLIC TALK: Harris legacy to be examined
Previously published in the North Bay Nugget
By PJ Wilson
Former premier Mike Harris’s ears will likely be ringing Saturday afternoon as speakers dissect his years in power at the Harris Learning Library at Nipissing University.
“What we want to address is the true story” of the Harris years in power, Catherine Murton Stoehr, a historian at Nipissing University, said Tuesday.
The session – A Public Talk in Three Parts: The Mike Harris Legacy – will revolve around three speakers in what Murton Stoehr hopes could become an annual look back at the controversial premier.
“One of the things we will look at is: This is how social assistance looked before (the Harris years) and this is what changed, how it changed.”
She stressed the session will not be a witch hunt, noting one of the three speakers, John Stapleton, helped create some of the legislation concerning social assistance.
“I have no idea what these guys are going to say,” she admitted.
The aim, she said, is simply to “have a conversation” to see where the province was and where it is.
The other two speakers are Neil Munro, former president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation representing District 4, and Maurice Switzer, First Nations public education consultant.
Switzer is also a co-organizer of the event.
And while the Harris era ended with the 2003 provincial election that brought the provincial Liberals led by Dalton McGuinty to power, many of the changes the Harris government brought in are still being felt.
The Liberals, she noted, maintained many of the policies while coming across as the “sad uncle.
“They say ‘We did our best,’ but it’s not as good as they could do.
“We lost a lot of territory as a society, and we want to go back” and reclaim lost ground.
The talk, open to the public, will run from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Thomson Reading Room of the Harris Learning Library at Nipissing University.
That evening, Harris will be among a group of four North Bay natives who will be recognized at the Kiwanis Nipissing Walk of Fame Dinner.
Harris, Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall fame, former mayor Jack Burrows and Jim Rankin of the Toronto Star will be honoured at a dinner at Clarion Resort Pinewood Park.