Dyson Showing Serious Leadership In Ontario

Trot Insider was recently alerted to the outstanding efforts of Lilly Dyson. The resident of Cobourg, Ont. is not your average 10-year-old. Her efforts to bring racing's fight to provincial politicians and local television cameras is simply remarkable.

Instead of sitting back passively while the Ontario horse-racing industry gets decimated by the provincial Liberal government, Lilly pulled up her socks, got her game face on and went to work.

Utilizing her passion, wit, pen and backbone, Lilly sat down and wrote a letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. She openly asked him why he has endorsed a course of action which will lead to in upwards of 60,000 people losing their jobs and billions in economic impact being pulled from rural Ontario.

Sounds like a rather large chunk for a 10-year-old to bite off, but, as Lilly has shown through and through, she rises to the occasion when hard work needs to be done. Besides going to school, socializing with friends, and all the other things a typical 10-year-old does, Lilly also excels at hard work --- the hard work that members of the harness-racing community are known for.

Lilly is not afraid to clean a stall, nor is she scared of tending to the loyal horses --- horses which put forth everything they have in order to help keep a roof over countless Ontarians' heads. Lilly is currently a licensed ORC groom, and it is very safe to say that she can keep up with anyone her age.

In correspondence with Trot Insider, Ronda, Lilly's grandmother, explained that the reason she forwarded so many photos of Lilly to Trot staff was "not just because she is my granddaughter, but also because she is a 10-year-old kid who is just sick about what the government is doing to horse racing.

"At 10 she is already preaching the gospel about what the Liberals have planned for the racing industry," Ronda explained. "She absolutely amazes me how she can understand the facts of the situation and speak to people about it that have no idea whatsoever with what is going on right now."

Ronda explained that Lilly has been vocal at fairs --- where has been interviewed on camera regarding the situation --- and essentially everywhere she has gone in efforts that eventually the province will come to its senses and not deliver the massive blow it apparently doesn't mind dropping.

In her letter to Premier McGuinty, Lilly said, "There are 60,000 people waiting for you to change your mind, and one person taking away 60,000 people's lives." Lilly did receive a response in the form of a letter rubber stamped by McGuinty. In addition to other commonly-heard Liberal rhetoric, the letter stated that McGuinty believes that he is making "the right choices in the best interest of Ontarians."

The contents of Lilly's letter appear below.

Dear Mr. McGuinty;

I am a 10-year-old girl named Lilly. All my life I have been with racehorses. My future is to race horses, but I don’t know if that will come true because none of the racetracks will be open on March 31, 2013. There are 60,000 people waiting for you to change your mind, and one person taking away 60,000 people's lives. What if you were one of those 60,000 people and someone else was the government and he was taking away horse racing? How would you feel? Probably really upset --- maybe even in tears. But you're way too much of a greedy government. Can you even stop and think about the struggle you put those people in? How do you feel about what you're doing? Not only my future you're taking away, you're also taking younger boys' and girls' future away. I just got my groomers licence, but what was the point of getting it when there won't be any more racing? What kind of heart do you have? One the size of a penny? Or one that's black with a big hole in the middle? Do you even have a heart? Do you care about how those horse-racing people feel? So many people are shedding so many tears each day and 60,000 people are spending a big amount of money on the food, shavings, vets, and shoes for the horses and that gives other people jobs. If there won't be any more horse racing, where would the people work and where will all the horses go if there is no more racing? Once horse racing is over no one will forgive you. Hope to hear from you soon so you can tell me why your making this decision because people would like to know and so would I. I even asked my Grade 4 teacher who knows everything and he didn't know.

Thank-You

Lilly