I ran into a young man while I was collecting signatures for my nomination recently. He asked me why I would waste my time running in this election against the very long odds of winning.

I’ve spent 35 years teaching science and biology – 30 years at public high schools in Scarborough, and the last five at a private high school in York Region. During those years I volunteered as staff advisor or coach in clubs and teams both at my schools and within the community as my children grew.

I retired about a year ago, and have been perfectly content spending my days watching the stock market (well, maybe not content - lately) and enjoying other long-loved hobbies:  astronomy and science education, baseball and classical music.

I have lived in Unionville since 1975 with Rita, my wife of 34 years – also a retired school teacher.  We raised two children here:  a son, who is a Professional Engineer, working in Markham, and a daughter, who has been working as a journalist across the country and now lives in Toronto.

So to the young man who wondered why I would waste my time this sums up what I told him:

I have held Libertarian views since my own high school days in Toronto and have never been fully satisfied with government at any level – regardless of party. For me to vote for any party in this riding is to try and choose the lesser of evils. All those parties, major or minor differ only in the way they would interfere with my life. Only the Libertarian Party would seek to shrink the size of government, protect my life, my freedom and my property rather than the opposite. By running in this election I’m providing the option to choose a different path for this country to myself, my family and neighbours who live in Markham-Unionville. How could that be a waste of time?

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