Joanne Sanders photo Stayner Sun BY Joanne Saunders, Special May 05, 2009 17:05 Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership hopeful Tim Hudak says he wants
to restore middle class values. Hudak made the comment in a speech to about 60 party members at a breakfast meeting at the Royal Canadian Legion in Creemore on Saturday. Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson, a Hudak supporter, hosted the event. Wilson told The Sun that he chose Hudak, the member for Niagara West-Glanbrook, over other leadership contenders, Frank Klees, Randy Hillier and Christine Elliot because, “I worked with him for 14 years and found him to be intelligent, competent and honest.†Hudak was Wilson’s parliamentary assistant. Introducing Hudak to the gathering, Wilson said he was impressed by Hudak when, “I was mining minister after him and people kept asking, ‘where’s Tim’â€
Wilson refers to Hudak as, “the man who saved the moose.†When the painted plastic moose craze, started by then Toronto mayor Mel Lastman, spread north, Wilson was using one as a charity fund-raising promotional prop. Vandals stole his moose. “Tim said, ‘I have a spare moose,’ and brought it up,†Wilson recalled.