MONK, DAVIS, HELLYER A LOT MORE THAN ‘LITTLE BIT OF OLD MUSKOKA’
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — A few passings of late worth note.
Bill Monk was not only the go-to surgeon whose knife most south Muskokans went under for decades.
But he was also the founder of the Cellar Singers, who began by rehearsing in his basement. Hence its name.
The choir has gone on the considerable Ontario fame from those humble beginnings in his Bracebridge home.
He was 93 when he died at home Aug. 12.
Muskoka lost two other prominent cottagers just a few days before.
Bill Davis and Paul Hellyer both died Aug. 8.
Davis was 92 and Hellyer 98.
Much has been written about the former, a “bland” former premier who shaped Ontario in many positive ways.
TVO’s Steve Paikin, who admired him greatly and finally convinced him to allow him to write his biography, said Davis’s island in Georgian Bay was his “favourite place in the world.”
He even docked his boat in Honey Harbour this summer, wrote Paikin recently in a tribute.
The same love of Muskoka could be said for Hellyer, another politician.
Hellyer, who died two days after his birthday, fell victim to a fall June 19 when he struck his head. He, too, died at home.
But his real love was his Arundel Lodge in Walker’s Point in Muskoka Lakes Township.
In 1996 he wrote a book about it called: Arundel Lodge: A Little Bit of Old Muskoka.
Hellyer was a major player in Canadian politics, notably as defence minister in Lester Pearson’s Liberal government.
It was that position that helped him pull a few strings to bring the North American Allied Defence (NORAD) band to Gravenhurst for a special concert appearance at Music On The Barge in the mid-1960s.
Hellyer oversaw the amalgamation of the Canadians Forces.
After running in 1968 for the party leadership won by prime minister Pierre Trudeau, he served briefly as transportation minister and Senior Minister.
He left the party in a dispute with Trudeau over a major report Hellyer wrote on housing and urban renewal that called for incremental reforms rather than new government programs. He also called for greater flexibility in Canada’s mortgage loan system, and encouraged corporate pension funds to invest more money in housing programs.
His report also called for the suspension of the “wholesale destruction of older housing” and for “greater selectivity… in the demolition of existing houses.”
Hellyer sat as an Independent MP
He was re-elected as a Progressive Conservative from 1972-74 and ran for their leadership in 1976 losing to Joe Clark. Hellyer was considered too far right.
He did return to the Liberals in 1982, but then started the short-lived Canadian Action Party in 1997. It sought to be a bridge between Liberals and Conservatives and Hellyer had extreme monetary reform views.
He was also a committed “UFOlogist,” as noted in his death notice that appeared in the Toronto Star alongside a much shorter one about Davis.
In early September 2005, Hellyer made headlines by publicly announcing that he believed in the existence of UFOs.
Hellyer wrote 13 books in addition to the paperback about Arundel Lodge.
They included Exit Inflation (1981), Jobs for All: Capitalism on Trial (1984)
Damn the Torpedoes (1990), Funny Money: A common sense alternative to mainline economics (1994), Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: The Economics of Hope for Generation X (1996), Evil Empire : Globalization’s Darker Side (1997)
Stop: Think (1999), Goodbye Canada (2001), One Big Party: To Keep Canada Independent (2003), A Miracle in Waiting (2010), update of Surviving the Global Financial Crisis, Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Survival Plan for the Human Species (2010), The Money Mafia: A World in Crisis (2014).
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