Former mayor dies

November 21, 2017 · 0 Comments

John Clarkson

By Bill Rea
John Clarkson was a character, who cold be blunt and outspoken, as the situation required.
The second mayor of the Town of Caledon died Early Tuesday morning. He had been living in British Columbia for the last number of years.
Mr. Clarkson became a Chinguacousy Township councillor in 1972, and was elected a member of the first Caledon council in 1974, representing Ward 2 at the Regional level. He became mayor in 1976 and served several terms, declining to seek re-election in 1985. He made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the mayor’s office in 1988.
“He was an icon in his day,” Mayor Allan Thompson recalled.
Thompson remembered the aftermath of the Mississauga train derailment in November 1979, when there was talk that some contaminated fill might be shipped north from the city. Thompson said there was no way that the mayor of the day was going to allow that to happen. He said Mr. Clarkson was backed up by other local farmers with tractors set up as a blockade. Mr. Clarkson had his pick-up truck, and an open shotgun.
“He put Caledon on the map that day,” Thompson chuckled.
Mr. Clarkson was succeeded as mayor by Emil Kolb, and he said the two kept in touch, talking on the phone a couple of times per year.
“We had a great conversation the last time we spoke,” Kolb said. “It’s sad to see him go.”
The two were members the first Caledon council, and Kolb said Mr. Clarkson was always a great supporter of the visions he was trying to put forth, and could be relied upon for positive input. He also said Mr. Clarkson had given him a heads-up in 1985 when he decided not to run again, and asked him to consider running to succeed him.
Kolb recalled Mr. Clarkson could be tenacious.
“If he really believed in something, he would never back down,” he said, adding he would listed to other opinions.
He said Mr. Clarkson was a good mayor and a strong voice for the Town at Peel Region.
“It’s just the way John was and how important he thought Caledon really was,” he said.
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