ALUMNI PROFILE
Hugh Edighoffer ’47 WELL-RESPECTED FORMER SPEAKER EDIGHOFFER PASSES AWAY by Andy Bader, editor of the Mitchell Advocate newspaper. Reprinted with permission and our thanks.
The one-sentence in his obituary humbly summed it up best: He was a small businessman, mayor, town councillor, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and Speaker of the Ontario Legislature. Hugh Edighoffer, a widely-respected longtime politician and businessman, passed away at his Mitchell home July 2. He was 90. The sentence at the tail end of his obituary was a low-key sentiment to a man who was humble, kind and gracious, people who knew him noted. “He was a true statesman,” said Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson, who as a 14-yearold helped volunteer during Edighoffer’s provincial election campaign in 1985. “He was more about public service than –The Honourable David Peterson, former Premier of Ontario partisan politics. He was about serving the people.” Mathieson remembered his parents wanted him to learn politics from someone respected in the political game and formally introduced him to their family friend, Edighoffer, who at that time had been elected to represent the Perth riding on five previous occasions (1967, 1971, 1975, 1977 and 1981). Edighoffer won in 1985, and again in 1987 before retiring before the 1990 election after a 23-year career in provincial politics.
“ Everything that’s good about Canada, Hugh represented.”
The Liberal Party, which had been out of power since 1943, formed a minority provincial government after the election of 1985 and Mathieson said he vividly recalls travelling to London on a bus with the Edighoffer campaign team to celebrate with newly-elected Premier David Peterson. Peterson, when reached by Postmedia for comment, had high words of praise for Edighoffer.
During his time at Pickering College, Edighoffer was a member of the Glee Club, the Thirty Club, played senior football, senior basketball and was part of Silver House. In 1988, Hugh was inducted into the Pickering College Class of 1842 for 25 years of service to the people of Ontario and the Provincial Legislative Assembly.
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“Everything that’s good about Canada, Hugh represented,” Peterson said from his home in Caledon. Peterson, who first met Edighoffer in 1975, used words such as understated, sweet, decent and community-minded to describe his friend. “He was a model to everybody,” he said. “He was one of those guys who was extremely well-liked by all sides because he wasn’t an aggressive, pushy, screaming-and-yelling guy. He was gentle and consensusorientated.” Current Perth-Wellington MP John Nater, also a Mitchell resident, said he was 14 when he purchased Edighoffer’s 160 bound copies of Hansard from his time at Queen’s Park. “I was later fortunate to enjoy our many conversations,” Nater said in a statement. “Hugh was a caring man who was always very generous with his time and I thank him for his tireless service to our community, our province and our country.” Nater said Edighoffer was a loyal public servant for the community and a strong representative for Perth, also calling him a “cornerstone” in the community of Mitchell.
