John Richard (Dick) Proctor

Dick’s earliest reading included the sports pages of the Globe and Mail. To sleeping parents: “Guess who won the game last night?  Who were the three stars?” Dick would become a sports reporter at the Globe.

When he was 10, his parents, Clem 1909-1969 and Jackie (nee Jolly) 1914-1989, moved from Willowdale to a dairy farm in Prince Edward County. Dick completed grades 5-8 in a one-room schoolhouse, did his share of farm chores and was a 4-H member.

He captained hockey teams in Wellington and Picton, quarterbacked the PECI football team and anchored the senior boys 4 x 110 yd. relay team, which set a Central Ontario Secondary School record.

He spent memorable summers as a camper, then counsellor, at Camp Sharbot for Boys, where he enjoyed canoe-camping and swimming. His university summers were spent as a lifeguard-camp ranger at Sandbanks Provincial Park.

Dick graduated in journalism from Carleton, where he was news and sports editor of the student newspaper and played varsity hockey.

He worked at the Edmonton Journal, Toronto Telegram, CBC and the Globe and Mail.

Later he spent a decade in the labour movement, where he was employed by CUPE, NUPGE and, in Latin America, with the CLC.

Much of Dick’s life was spent working to advance the NDP. It was his great privilege to work closely with four esteemed Party leaders – Stephen Lewis, Ontario, Premier Allan Blakeney, Saskatchewan, and Federal leaders Ed Broadbent and Jack Layton. He served as the NDP’s Federal Secretary and the Saskatchewan NDP’s Provincial Secretary.

With federal NDP fortunes at an all-time low following the 1993 election, Dick sought the Party’s nomination for the Palliser riding in Saskatchewan. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1997, re-elected in 2000. He was caucus chair for five years and the Party’s spokesman for agriculture, defence, labour and sports.

On an airplane flight in 1998, he overheard Canada’s Solicitor-General pre-judging an inquiry into the actions of both the  Prime Minister’s Office and the RCMP at the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic-Co-operation conference in Vancouver. “Hughie’s (RCMP Sgt Hugh Stewart) gonna have to take the fall” the  Minister told his seatmate, but after Dick raised the matter in the House, it was the Minister who resigned.

Dick, his incomparable wife and best friend, Merran (nee Moreau), moved to Victoria BC in 2005.

A teenage bride, she was a single mother of three by age 21, without financial support or a high school diploma. With the kids often in tow, Merran finished high school, worked a variety of jobs, earned a BA, and won an M.A. scholarship at Queens.

Merran's public service career culminated in 1992, when she was named Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister of Labour.

In Victoria, Dick played hockey into his 80’s, embraced racquet ball and played the piano - not well - but daily.

He is fondly remembered by Merran, children Jacquelyn Proctor (Brendan Holm) and shiny new baby Merran Simone, Benn Proctor (Margaux Samis) and their loving, laughing daughter Blair, 8, Alexandra Twigg, Cynthia Davison (Ian  Battle), Monique Twigg (Edgardo Sepulveda), Gordon Twigg (Melanie), and siblings Peter (Barb) and Betty (Heather Hughes), grandchildren, great grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews.

So long, to close friends Norm Simon, Gary Woodbeck, Reid Manore, Graham Thompson, Rick Reid, Bill Bolstad, Joyce Crew, Deb McDonald, Peter Spurr, Walter Jess, Gerry Caplan and Bill Knight.

Former MP Dennis Gruending and Roberta Webster provided superb assistance to Dick on Parliament Hill, together with Stacey Landin in the riding.

Dick will miss Saturday coffee with Merran’s brother Brian Moreau (Andrea Chorney). 

The Halibut Burger Boys monthly luncheon was a wonderful way to keep learning about federal and provincial issues, while loathing the grifting, shambolic US president and the American electorate, that appeases, not apprehends.

“This is the great theatre of life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. Come when you can and leave when you must. The show is continuous.” - Robertson Davies

Donations to BC Cancer or a charity of your choice. Celebrations of life will be planned for later dates in Victoria, BC and Prince Edward County. Details will be announced when finalized