George Pirie was not lacking in motivation en route to his provincial election victory in Timmins. Not only was he determined to bring his positive message about Timmins to Queen’s Park, but he had plenty of inspiration from personal challenges facing friends and family.
Pirie decided to run for the Progressive Conservatives while holding the office of mayor. But during the provincial campaign his wife, Debbie, had surgery. And Louise Malette, the wife of his campaign manager Gaetan Malette, passed away on May 1.
“My wife is here with me tonight, and as I told you she had major surgery about eight weeks ago,” Pirie told the crowd of a few hundred PC supporters at the Porcupine Dante Club. He then went all to thank numerous campaign workers and called Gaetan Malette to the front for an emotional thank you.
“There’s a hundred people here to thank, but I want to bring Gaetan back up here,” he said. “The devastating loss we had with Louise on that fateful Sunday, and what it meant to us, and it was just devastating. But we have a fantastic team. Gaetan pulled us all together relatively quickly. As always, he was calm, cool and collective. And we got through that week and we got through the funeral.
“In many mornings, we had to stifle the tears back. I said to him, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ And Gaetan said, ‘It’s what Louise wanted.’
“So, tonight we don’t have to stifle our tears, but they’re not just with grief but with joy. Because Louise got her wish.”
He also reinforced his positive message about Timmins’ future.
“This is a historic time in the City of Timmins,” Pirie explained. “It’s a critical time in Timmins. This message is focused on growth. There’s talk of moving this city into 50,000 people, then 100,000 people, and the region being 500,000 people and we can do that.
"And we will start this tomorrow.
“We’ve got a big job ahead of us. But with the people we have in this room and the support that these numbers indicate, they know and I know the voters of Timmins believe this message as a positive message. We can do it and we can get it done.”
He also had kind words for outgoing MPP Gilles Bisson.
“He served the riding for 32 years,” Pirie said. “So, he’s obviously had a very successful political career and that must be acknowledged. The other thing that must be acknowledged is family, as his wife and kids supported him for 32 years because it truly is about family.”
