Rothenburger — Don Cameron’s life of courage and loyalty

COLUMN — Canada lost a patriot and Kamloops lost a good citizen this week with the passing of Don Cameron.

Don was a consummate Conservative who took his love of country and politics to Ottawa when he served briefly as our Member of Parliament in 1979-80. He would have served longer if not for then-Prime Minister Joe Clark’s stupendous political miscalculation in allowing his minority government to be defeated, forcing an election in February 1980, barely eight months after it took office.

NDP candidate Nelson Riis defeated Cameron in that election and went on to win several more, staying in office for some 20 years.

The experience didn’t sour Cameron, who continued to be a keen observer of federal politics for the rest of his life. He often showed up at the front counter of The Kamloops Daily News asking for me, and we always had friendly chats. Then he’d hand me a typewritten letter to the editor and tell me what it was about and to use it “if you need to fill some space.”

Invariably, his letters would tear a strip off both the NDP and Liberals and defend the Conservatives on the issues of the day.

I remember moderating a federal election all-candidates’ forum one time when Don disagreed so strongly with something one of the candidates said that he approached the stage during a break to set him straight and they almost came to blows.

That was the only time I saw him get truly hot under the collar, though he took politics very seriously. I knew Don a long time and knew him well enough that I can say while he was a man of strong opinions he was a true gentleman. In one letter to the editor, he took an NDP MP to task for using a profanity in a tweet about the federal budget, then defended the Tories for closing debate on a finance bill.

“Just how long does he want to discuss the bill?” Cameron asked, pointing out it had been debated for months. “When a normal intelligent person considers the PM’s announcements during the election campaign and the results giving the Conservative government a good majority government, any thinking person would easily conclude the proper thing to do is let the bill pass and not use the expletive foul-mouthed language Pat Martin did.”

He defended Harper again when the paper published a photo of a protester with a sign that said, “Shame, shame, shame on Harper.” Cameron’s assessment: “… the lady did not have a clue as to what she was doing or the view she was expressing.”

On another occasion, he lambasted critics for “trying to make the prime minister look bad.”

Whenever there was a federal election going on, Don ramped up his letter writing, often focusing on economic issues but sometimes commenting on issues like abortion and the war on drugs, always defending the Conservatives.

A heavy construction contractor by trade, Don served in the Second World War and was a prisoner of war. He was a 27-year-old troop sergeant when he was wounded by a sniper’s bullet and landed in a Paris hospital in Nazi-occupied France.

In an interview a little more than a year ago, Don described to a Daily News reporter how he almost escaped capture but was found by German soldiers, how surgery on his leg was butchered and it nearly had to be amputated.

Canada, and our community, owe much to people like Don Cameron. His was a life lived well, a life in which courage and loyalty were paramount.

He was 96. A memorial service will be held today (Saturday) at 1 p.m. at Schoening’s Funeral Home.

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