Posted 18 hours ago
Cheryl Basden
Special/Tri-Town News
Leamington's three surviving past mayors have a rich history with this town and while this article could take on a life of its own with their anecdotes, accomplishments, and lengthy political resumes, the Tri-Town News wondered what they've been up to since.
What happens when a person in a leadership role, meeting influential people including Canada's prime minister and Queen Elizabeth, returns to everyday life to become an ordinary citizen under a new leader.
The Tri-Town News offers a peak inside their lives today and reminds us what they achieved while in office.
The landscape of Leamington might be a lot different today if the men who led the community in the past two decades had not been in office. Would Leamington have a marina, a recreation complex, a revitalized Seacliff Park, or even a Walmart?
Perhaps those municipal amenities would exist today, but perhaps they wouldn't.
The significant decisions and roles former mayors Jim Ross, Dave Wilkinson and John Adams played led to those these community treasures.
Turn back time to 1992 before Ross was in office when the aging municipal arena on Erie Street North was the proud home of the Leamington Flyers, when the highway to Windsor ended in Ruthven, and when the land where Walmart and surrounding businesses stand today was an empty field. The progress these men and their councils made is evident.
Mayoral duties are still fresh in the mind of Leamington's most recent former mayor, Adams, but already it has been an entire decade since Wilkinson was in charge, and even longer for Ross.
Following a fierce campaign in a three-way mayoral race in the 2010 municipal election, Adams was defeated by Coun. John Paterson. The defeat ended an illustrious 27-year political career that began on the former Mersea Township council. Immediately after his loss, Adams took his wife Rose on a trip to the Grand Canyon, a place they had always wanted to visit.
After their vacation, the retired farmer applied for a part-time job at Nature Fresh Farms and today works 25 to 30 hours a week doing yard maintenance and looking after the greenhouse complex's sprinkler system.
"I just applied. I'm not one to sit around and watch soap operas. I like to get up in the morning and have something to do," Adams says.
In addition to his flexible part-time job, Adams enjoys boating with his wife Rose in the summer and spending time golfing in Florida during winter months. His four grandchildren visit often and enjoy the swimming pool on their family farm.
"And I'm actually catching up on movies I haven't seen for the last 27 years," Adams laughs.
Recently retired, Wilkinson now enjoys his winters in Florida with wife Marlene. The couple own a retirement home there situated on a golf course. The rest of the year, Wilkinson enjoys leisure time with friends and family including his two sons and three grandchildren.
Wilkinson considers his years in office, from 1997 to 2003, a "dynamic" time in the town's history for the positive activity that took place. He credits the support he received for numerous achievements.
"I would not have been successful if not for the staff at town hall. It was not me it was their hard work ... it was my councils that were with me and I had a group of fantastic people that were behind me," says Wilkinson, now 64.
"We put together the new Leamington-Mersea municipality; we went through the millennium and Y2K scare, which involved a lot of staff making sure we were ready for it."
While Wilkinson was in office, the town saw construction of a new arena/recreation complex, a municipal airport, Walmart and surrounding commercial developments, and approval for the extension of Highway 3. The province only planned to fund the extension to Highway 77 but Wilkinson argued that the original agreement was to extend the bypass to the Wheatley road. He fought the battle and won.
"I said 'now we can do something.' I felt like I'd accomplished something. That road that ran from Ruthven to the Superstore was a lot of hard work to secure from that government - a Mike Harris government," says Wilkinson.
Wilkinson's mayoral role ended when he ran as a Progressive Conservatives in the 2003 provincial election - the election in which the Liberals wiped out the Ernie Eves-led government. Wilkinson was defeated by the incumbent candidate, Liberal Pat Hoy.
"I probably wouldn't have left the (municipality) but I had to choose ... it was probably for the best in a way," says Wilkinson.
He was too young to retire when he left politics.
"I had great years at town hall, but as it turned out I went on to bigger and better things and now I'm basically retired." After his loss in the Ontario election, Wilkinson spent the next few years travelling the world selling European biomass boilers to the greenhouse industry on behalf of Thermal Energy Systems and Vyncke Boilers out of Belgium.
During Adams' nine years as mayor his accomplishments included the revitalization of Seacliff Park, completion of Highway 3 to Seacliff Drive, and the prevention of wind turbines in Lake Erie.
In his last few years on council, Adams was dealing with controversial political topics including the switch from a municipal police service to the OPP and the decision whether to construct a new municipal building.
"It's hard to explain to the public the reasons why we make decisions ... really, you base your decisions on the facts you have in front of you," explains Adams.
Ross was in local politics for 15 years, serving as mayor from 1993 to 1997. During his political career he owned several local businesses, including Superior Cabinets and Ross Wood Products, before leaving it all to become a real estate agent.
In August, at age 75, Ross retired from Sun County Realty. He and his wife Karen now enjoy their winters in Florida.
Ross is most proud of the part he played along with council in bringing the Leamington Marina to fruition.
"We didn't get into it just to provide local boaters a place to tie up their boat. We went in with the idea to attract American boaters. We decided that we better be the best one in the Great Lakes and we were," says Ross.
He recalls the controversy surrounding the marina but with the federal government offering it to them, the town could not refuse.
"Council had to decide whether to participate in the offer. It was a fight and I was all for it. You can't say no when somebody is handing you all that money." When Ross was mayor, the promenade between the marina and the dock area was being built. Wilkinson's council completed the project.
The former mayors all talk about their time in office with as much passion as they had while in office. Although Ross, Adams, and Wilkinson admit to missing different aspects of their leadership role, they all agree that they are happy in this phase of their lives, away from the spotlight and free to enjoy their spare time.