When the Ontario Liberal government cancelled the Slots at Racetracks Program in 2012 it set in motion a number of events that devastated Patrick Meyers’ horse breeding business and eventually led to his decision to run in this year’s election under the Ontario PC banner.
Meyers is a veterinarian who specialized in horses. In 2000 he and his wife bought their dream farm in Rockwood.
At the time of the cancellation of SARP, the couple had the third largest breeding farm in Ontario, with as many as 100 horses on his property in Rockwood during breeding season.
“We built it up from nothing and with a lot of sweat equity and a lot of financial investment and all of a sudden on March 12, 2012 Dwight Duncan and Paul Godfrey decided to make the announcement that they were ending the revenue sharing part of the slots program and within a year we were done,” said Meyers.
With SARP , the province shared 20 per cent of the revenue from slots with the horse racing industry in what Meyers called a business partnership.
Within a year, 1,700 race dates dropped to just 800 and the $340 million a year the horse racing industry shared from slot revenue became a $50 million a year subsidy.
“Purses dropped, people left the business, horses were slaughtered,” said Meyers.
He is one of three local Ontario PC candidates hoping to receive the nomination for Guelph, including former city councillor Ray Ferraro and a yet-unnamed candidate.
Meyers said the end goal is removing the Liberals from power in Ontario and ensuring Kathleen Wynne is no longer premier of the province.
“I never say I hate anybody, because it’s not the Christian thing to do, but I am just about as close to hating her and Dalton McGuinty as I have ever been in my life,” said Meyers.
Since taking power in 2003, Meyers said it has been one broken promise after another from the Liberals, including the closure of gas plants in 2012, problems with eHealth, and overspending by Ornge Air Ambulance service.
“It just goes on and on — the waste of taxpayer money,” he said.
Meyers acknowledges he doesn’t have any experience at the municipal, provincial or federal levels.
“I am not going to try and fool anybody by telling them I have lots of experience in politics — take me as I am. I am honest, I have integrity, I am principled and I will do the best possible job for the constituency of Guelph,” he said.
Meyers graduated from University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College in 1984 and went on to practice in Cambridge and Kemptville and also worked at the Equine Research Centre at University of Guelph.
Meyers has backed away from his private practice that he opened 20 years ago, but still does work for the Ontario Racing Commission, which has been absorbed into the province’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission.
Voting for the local candidate will take place by the local Ontario PCs after the party’s leadership convention on March 10.
A local NDP candidate is yet to be announced for the 2018 provincial election. Liberal Party of Ontario candidate Sly Castaldi and Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, have been confirmed by their parties to run in the contest.
