Bob Harvey takes a break

Jeff Green | Dec 02, 2010

Photo: Toots and Bob Harvey, at home.

When Central Frontenac Township Council held the final meeting of the 2006 mandate, council said goodbye to Bob Harvey, who has served on council for a total of 19 years, including six as a councilor in Oso Township and 13 as a councilor in Central Frontenac.

Bob Harvey joined council in 1981, eight years after his father William Harvey retired as reeve. William Harvey had been reeve from 1958 until 1974, after serving one term on council between 1953 until 1957. The Harvey family has therefore been involved in municipal politics in the Sharbot Lake area for well over 50 years.

“I considered taking another run for mayor this time around,” said Harvey from his home, which sits on a hill across the road from the township office and affords a good view of Sharbot Lake, “But the timing is not right. I have some family concerns, young grandchildren, and other things to deal with, so I stepped off council instead. But that doesn’t mean I won’t come back in four years. I haven’t ruled that out.”

Bob Harvey’s family lived in Perth when he was born in 1940, and they moved to Clarendon in 1947 when William Harvey bought the Clarendon store, located near the Clarendon K&P railroad station (both buildings are still standing).

Bob attended the one-room Clarendon schoolhouse and later Sharbot Lake High School, but he left school before graduating and moved to Toronto. He worked for a year in a rail yard and then for McNamara Construction for three years driving heavy equipment.

At 21, he married his wife Toots, who is a member of the Keirstead family that is so well known regionally as painters. He worked for a year to put himself through barber’s college. The Harveys returned to Sharbot Lake when Bob was 23, and he set up shop as a barber in a building across from the train station.

Over a few years Bob purchased the lot where his barber shop stands now. He built the barber shop and pool room in 1967. Between 1967 and 1991 the Harveys lived further up Elizabeth Street, before they built their house on the hill behind the barber shop.

In the meantime, Bob got into a lot more than hair. He bought and sold furs and ginseng, raced horses, and bought and sold a number of properties, often buying lots and houses in tax sales around Ontario.

“I feel pretty fortunate to have come into a small town with nothing to my name, and be able to make a decent living and raise three boys.”

Even though Harvey travelled around, he has always considered himself as a small business owner in Sharbot Lake. “I went into politics for the same reason that I stayed in it, because the welfare of the town and the surrounding areas was important to me and to my family and my business, and I thought that I could help improve things. If I ever didn’t think I could do any good I wouldn’t be there,” he said.

One of the things that frustrates Harvey about council, and has always been an issue, is a lack of forward-thinking planning. “If council does not have a set of long-term goals for the township, then they will always be fumbling along, and never moving forward.”

He points to the Town of Richmond, as an example. “When they built a fire hall, they put a brick face on it, and put a clock tower on top of it. Now they didn’t do that just to spend money, they did it so young people could look at the fire hall and see that the town has some pride, that it wants to be something. Now there is nothing wrong with the fire hall we built over on Wagner; it’s a good building. But it is a tin building. It has nothing to mark us as a community.”

He also has argued, repeatedly, that the township should purchase some land, so when opportunities for housing projects come available, the township can participate.

In terms of the direction of the current township and county, Bob Harvey is hopeful, but in his view at least one mistake was made when Frontenac County Council was reformed: South Frontenac Township received a second vote.

“That kills everything; it kills the idea that everyone is equal, which is something that worked for a hundred years. Back before amalgamation the reeve of Kingston Township used to complain that he had one vote, and the reeve from Palmerston Canonto had one vote. But they were all there for everyone else, not their own corner. With two votes, South Frontenac is given leave to worry only about their own interests; that’s not the way to build anything,” he said.

Still, Harvey wishes council the best, but if they head in the wrong direction, they can expect to hear from the house on the hill above the office.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Bob Harvey said, “I can still express my opinion."