Regional Council’s senior statesman

If Alex Trebek’s Final Jeopardy answer was “the still-active grand old man of Niagara politics,” one might reasonably answer “who is Jim Bradley?,” a long-time Liberal first elected to Ontario’s Legislature in 1977, who currently sits as Regional Chair. But if chronological age is the measure, Bradley, at age 75, concedes top spot to political veteran and octogenarian Tim Rigby.

It all started in 1996, when Rigby was an insurance broker in St. Catharines. His major community focus at the time was rowing, as he was a driving force to bring the 1999 World Championships to the Henley Course (a feat he has repeated for the 2024 regatta).

Rigby recalls that the late John Walker, one of Niagara’s most distinguished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, was the instigator in bringing a group of people together to cajole him into an election run as mayor in 1997. “I had some reservations, but my wife Gini was present during the pitch, and she said ‘you watch council meetings every Monday night on cable tv anyway, so you might as well get more involved,’’ said Rigby with a chuckle.