Incumbent Candidate

Tuesday, 13 May 2014 05:52

Looking at the longest tenured member of the Ontario legislature, Oxford P-C Candidate Ernie Hardeman.

WOODSTOCK -- It might be hard for some to think of a time when Ernie Hardeman wasn't the MPP for Oxford, but the incumbent P-C Candidate is looking to stand for yet another term.

Hardeman, who's served right up until this election as Oxford MPP since 1995, has over time, become the longest tenured MPP in the riding's history.

When asked what the secret to running and winning in Oxford is, Hardeman says winning first of all, is hard to come by each time out, but he feels he's been able to connect well with the electorate now through five elections.

"It was such an exhilarating feeling winning that first election. But since then, I start each election on exactly the same basis. It's not that I've learned from it or that I'm better at it, it's that I believe that every hand I shake -- is the hand I need -- to get elected."

He says he looks at each election from the point of the constituent, and as a report card on the previous performance in government.

Now a veteran of five elections, Hardeman says this time to the polls, the key issues are simple.

"Jobs and the economy is what it's all about. Everything that we have in our society is predicated on people having a job to go and then pay taxes to pay the services we need. When we get to the point that our employment is down, and our taxes are up and are investment is down to create those jobs, everybody gets discouraged."

In answering the question, "Who is Ernie Hardeman away from his role as MPP?" he tries best to describe it by expressing that the only times when he's not working as a legislative member, he must be asleep.

"Obviously, there's invariably somebody that comes up and says, '...I hate to bother you at an event like this, but...' And I say, 'Well, I just want you to understand that's why I'm here at this event,' and that's the way we do our job, and I really don't have other things that I do away from the job."

Before provincial politics, Hardeman served as chair of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association in 1993 and 1994.

He also owned and operated Hardeman Feed Ltd. in Salford from 1966 to 1995, has served on many other local committees and community boards. Hardeman was also volunteer firefighter for 25 years, retiring in 1995 as Captain of the South-West Oxford Fire Department.