In probably his last public speech as an advocate for Canada’s railways, Railway Association of Canada president Cliff Mackay was true to his cause.
He used a Nov. 22 speech at the Canada Grains Council Grain Industry Symposium in Ottawa to argue against tougher legislation or regulations against Canada’s railways to force better service standards.
The genial and well-connected Mackay, a veteran railway employee and Winnipeg native, died in late January in a Napanee, Ont., hospice after a four-year battle with cancer.
He had used the last several years to warn against imposing new rules in the aftermath of the federal report on the railway level of service review that described rail service failures and suggested new legal requirements as a backup if commercial negotiations between shippers and carriers are not successful.
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“We believe what we have now is reasonable,” the clearly ill McKay told the meeting as he used the podium for support.
“We don’t think new legislation and regulation is needed to make it more reasonable.”
If the railways are the monopoly players that shippers allege, said Mackay, “how come they have to work so damn hard to make their money?”
Even those on the other side of the issue admired his good-natured chutzpah.
When he was finished, he used a wheelchair parked at the edge of the stage to exit the room.
