Authoritarian Amherstburg

Former agriculture minister Eugene Whelan finds there’s no politics like local marina politics.

Former agriculture minister Eugene Whelan finds there’s no politics like local marina politics.

Eugene Whelan, the town’s best-known political figure, is fuming. “They stole my signs.”

The same day that his letter criticizing the looming sale of the municipally owned Walter Ranta Marina appeared in The Windsor Star, a protest sign about the same issue was yanked out of his lawn by town staff. “It’s a mockery of democracy,” said Whelan, often remembered as perhaps the most-loved agriculture minister Canada ever had. His wife Liz witnessed the early morning heist…

By e-mail, town administrator Pam Malott said a student employee had misunderstood instructions to remove only the protest signs left on the marina property on the outskirts of town.