Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame President John Stapleton has heard the call to contact local MPPs in response to the Drummond Report's recommendations for the Ontario horse-racing industry
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Respectfully writing to Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan on his own, separate from his association with the Hall of Fame, Stapleton urged Duncan and his party to take a step back, analyze the numbers associated with the Ontario horse-racing industry, and reconsider their current perspective on the situation.
It is important that you, your political staff, and your public service financial analysts fully understand what these losses will mean for Ontario. Their opinions and their analysis will be important. I urge you to listen to them closely as they begin to understand the other sides of the current debate as well as the breadth and scope of the unintended consequences of the policy directions that the government has yet to think through in sufficient detail.
The horse racing industry has made the case that you and your staff have misapprehended the role of racing in Ontario and the financing arrangements that are now in place. I have heard your arguments and I have heard theirs.
They are right on this issue. You and the people who advise you in this instance are wrong. And you are especially wrong as it relates to the hurtful, false and ultimately preposterous advertising campaign that your party has chosen to undertake in the wake of the response from the horse racing industry.
The Ontario horse racing industry has been imploring everybody that makes a living from the provincial industry in any way, shape or form to contact their MPP via telephone or letter in regard to the Drummond Report's recommendation for racing. Every call and letter makes a big difference.
To view Stapleton's letter, click here.