Editor: I’d like to tell you about how I remember my friend Terry.
I am sure he will hear me, as he always did. He not only heard me, but greeted me with the friendliest hug, saying “Hi, my old friend.”
Today, as forever, I want to remember him not only as a great friend, but as my two-term elected town councillor colleague.
I remember when he started to campaign in the Canmore Hilton, as we used to call it. On his first try he got in with a great majority, and boy was I glad along with many others in Canmore.
Terry knew why he was running; not because of the small honorarium, but he really wanted to work for Canmore and his friends.
He ran an honest, hard campaign. I remember his speeches. They told us who he was and what he wanted to do when he got elected for us, the Terry-way.
It was understood, because it was not full of political slogans or grandstanding issues. Terry wanted to better our quality of life by looking after the environment, green areas and parks, where he enjoyed entertaining Canmore. He started in Larch Park on Heritage Days and continued with his unforgettable performance on Canmore’s 100th birthday.
He cared about real issues such as sustainable development, to create a meaningful staff housing by-law, indirectly addressing the affordable housing issue. Terry knew, because he had a big heart, how to fight for what he wanted and needed to do. I learned a lot from him,
He was a good father, entertainer, writer, a natural talent and an honest, smart politician.
Always, when I talked to him, he made me happy when I was sad and picked me up when I lost a motion in the council chamber or together we lost an argument regarding a political issue at the council meeting.
Terry fought for the things that he believed, in and out of the council chamber. He knew that he stood for Canmore, for the people and, most importantly, for the middle class crowd.
He was fighting to preserve and remember our Canmore history, not just when he was on council, but every day on the street and on the stage. Terry was a wonderful writer and a funny, happy actor, with a deep message on or off the stage (even in the council chamber, when he had a few friendly words to the mayor or to a developer such as Three Sister’s’ executives. He told them in a fearless confident way, what he thought).
To me Terry was a winner, because he did what he wanted to do, he said what he wanted to say. In my eyes he was on the stage at all times, because he was above us all with his positive attitude, happy smile and “gutsiness.”
He did whatever he wanted to do, even smashing a cream pie in the face of Member of Parliament Myron Thompson or running out at the end of a council meeting to jump onto his van and finish up a speech that he was not allowed to make in the chamber because was called out of order by our mayor.
I already miss Terry’s warm hug and his words of true kindness, but I hope when years from now I shall go and visit him up there he will still have saved some of his special warm hugs for me and will impersonate my Hungarian accent – how are you and Eva, “my good man.”
Good bye, Terry. Please keep on thinking of Canmore with your love as you always did. We will never forget you.
John Kende,
Canmore
