Newsmaker: Bonin retires from politics

BY BILL BRADLEY

Nickel Belt MP Ray Bonin has had some highs and lows in his 30 year political career spanning federal and municipal politics.

Last April, many Greater Sudbury residents had kind words to say about retiring Ray Bonin - about his cheery smile, his constituency work and his focus on getting the medical school off the ground.

What would this city’s residents say is Ray Bonin’s legacy?

“It has to be the medical school. The concept of the medical school came from the members of the Northern Ontario Liberal caucus and he was its chair,” said former city councillor Louise Portelance, now nominated as the Liberal candidate to replace Bonin.

“Another thing people remember about him is his overriding love of his family. That is so French-Canadian of him,” she said.

Another former candidate for the Nickel belt Liberal nomination is Paul Finley, an economic development officer with the City of Greater Sudbury.

“Ray Bonin was very much into diversifying our economy. He got FedNor money for a substantial trade delegation we took to the World Expo in Hanover, Germany and five other cities in 2000,” said Finley.

“It consisted of representatives from First Nations, artists including native drummers and local country star Chuck Labelle, and 25 businessmen and tourism officials. It also was wonderful to see northern artists on the main stage of Expo in Hanover,” he said.

Chief of Police Ian Davidson said he thinks Bonin will be remembered by his crime fighting tactics.

“When we lost one of our best officers, Constable Rick MacDonald in 1998, Ray Bonin vigorously pushed for tougher legislation for people attempting to flee police officers. He also sat on a committee which was attempting to make Corrections Canada more efficient, so we wouldn’t have our officers being confronted by criminals who should have been behind bars and not back on the street,” said Davidson.
“That makes him a friend of the police.”

Recently Bonin told Northern Life he was upset how he was no longer invited to be the federal representative at funding announcements.

“What is happening is that the federal Conservatives want to bury me and the Liberal party in this riding. When there is a funding announcement, federal officials in the riding are told by Ottawa not to invite me. I call that dirty politics. I hear Harper’s PMO is doing that to Liberals across the country,” said Bonin at the Nickel Basin Development Corporation’s annual general meeting in the fall.