George Springate: what a slacker!

  George Springate knew how to bend time. That's the only explanation for it.This man multi-tasked in the early 70s in a way unseen in any other era.
   He was born on Wellington in the Point in 1938 and was a shy, introverted kid, the fourth of five children born of parents from England. He became an extrovert after playing soccer, baseball and hockey competitively as well as football, eventually professionally.
   He worked in odd jobs as he attended school. At 14 he worked on tugboats in the port, at 16 as an usher at the Forum, he sold socks and ties at Morgan's and serviced IBM machines at the Sun Life building.
   At age 20 he joined the Montreal police force and walked a beat in the Tenderloin. He raised some eyebrows when he gave a ticket to a driver named Lucien Saulnier, who was second in command at City Hall.
   He became the PR guy for the local cops and headed all sorts of gimmick events such as one where kids could come in and get fingerprinted, listen to the police radio and ride in a police car. He hosted Police in Action every Tuesday on Pulse News. He held a session at Eaton's where he taught women how to keep purse snatchers from nabbing their purses. In 1969 he won The Vanier Award for Canada's Outstanding Young Man.
   Throughout this time he also took law courses at McGill. He would somehow attend classes while working full time and managed to complete his four-year law course over six years, 17 of his 20 marks being over 70 percent. And throughout that time he also played on the Hochelaga Hellcats of the Montreal Metropolitan Football league as place-kicker.
   So in March 1970 he quit the police department and junior football, citing all-round apathy for the league here.
   Twenty four days before the provincial election of 1970 he decided to run as a Liberal against 22-year incumbent Frank Hanley in Ste. Anne's which was also the Point St. Charles area in which Springate was raised. He managed to beat Hanley who later quipped, "I always knew I'd be defeated one day but never thought it'd be by a guy from Westmount."
   Springate became a Member of the National Assembly, a backbencher in the Bourassa caucus even though he later confessed that he had no clue how much the job paid or even where the meetings were held. In August 1970 he tried out for the Montreal Alouettes, who had to acquire his CFL rights from the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
   In the midst of the October Crisis Springate was also playing some in the CFL. After a game on October 19, 1970 he rushed out as soon as the final whistle blew and was met by an RCMP agent who hustled him back to Montreal in an ambulance, not even allowing him time for a shower.
   After Pierre Laporte was found dead some thought Springate might become a target for separatists as an anglo MNA. He was given two armed guards but said he felt safe among 31 football players. "They'll need an army to get me," he said. He was paid $500 per game that year.
   That year the Alouettes won the Grey Cup against the Argos. Springate missed an easy convert after the first touchdown but they won anyway.
  The coach saw Springate as a leader and would ask him to bring the guys to war movies the night prior to games. Once as a prank he brought them to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves instead.

Wins Grey Cup

  Springate kept busy in politics, organizing a poverty meeting in his district. But hit some rocky shores after his leader Bourassa introduced Bill 22 which would force immigrant children into French schools. Springate opposed it openly and fought against his own party's initiative. Other anglo MNAs went along with the leader, notably cabinet ministers Victor Goldbloom, Bill Tetley and Kevin Drummond who Springate later described as, "Canada's first quisling."
   With the support of CFCF radio, Springate toured the province and managed to get 600,000 on a petition to "abolish" the law. He later said that if he did it again he'd change it to "amend" the law. Somewhere along the line he called Bourassa, "the most hated man in Quebec," although he later expressed admiration for his Liberal leader.
   In November 1971 Springate threatened to quit politics, implying that Tetley had tried to blackmail him, based on a letter he showed to the media. Tetley denied it. When reporters tried to question Springate about it he rushed to his car saying that he had to get to Montreal fast. "This is just like a James Bond movie eh guys?" as he rolled up the car window and locked the door.
   It's unclear if or how much Springate played on the Alouettes in 1971 (box scores indicate that another guy did the placekicking that year). in May 1972 he is described as being out of football. Another article from October 1972 says that an agreement has been reached to see him place kick for the Alouettes, that Don Sweet would be put on waivers and that Springate would donate his salary to charity.
  In August 1972 he complained that cabinet ignores caucus. He continued his criticism of Bill 22. "It will hit the poor on both sides. They will be the ones to suffer. They will be the ones trapped in their own language with no chances of advancement that knowing a second language can bring," he said. He was rumoured to be part of a group trying to buy the Montreal Alouettes from Sam Berger, offering $1.5 million for the franchise, almost a million short of the asking price.
   In 1974 Springate and his fellow-Bill 22 critic John Ciacca were suspended from the Liberal Bourassa caucus, it lasted July 31 to September 10. Anglos were unhappy.
   In spite of his passionate intensity, Springate rarely attended sessions in Quebec. He explained that he'd double park in front of the assembly, vote, attend or give a speech and leave right away back to Montreal. "For an anglo MNA all you had to be there for was when they talked about language or individual rights. The rest of the time they're talking about fisheries in the Gaspe or parks in Point au Pic and that didn't matter a damn back in your constituency which is where I was giving the people the greatest thing you could give, an ear and the truth of whether I could help them or not."
   He was cool on classical music. "The MSO? Pshaw! Who goes to see them? Nobody in my county," he told a reporter. In August 1974 he said he was offered big money from wealthy individuals to start a separate anglo rights party but turned them down. When he submitted anti-Bill 22 petition with 600,000 signatures to the legislature in 1975, it prompted the Journal de Montreal to make their own petition, complaining of the racism of those who oppose Bill 22. It received 91,000 names.
   His biographies routinely say that he got a degree in Psychology from Sir George Williams and a second degree with honours in law from McGill, although it's not clear when exactly he had the time to do this. He also did winter jogging.
   In October 1976 Springate said he would not run again but Bourassa offered him a seat in Pointe Claire. The same year he dared Bourassa to either change Bill 22 or kick him out of the party.
   He ended up running after all for the Liberals in 1976, in Westmount. But after the Liberals were defeated by the Parti Quebecois he decided not to run again in 1981. During that mandate he started teaching Police Tech at John Abbott College in the West Island, thereby drawing a second salary with his MNA salary. Staff grumbled that the school made a special schedule to allow him to do this.
   Upon quitting politics, he organized a roast for himself in June 1981, attended by 1,500 at $50 a head. It was attended by Brian Mulroney and Richard Hatfield amongst others and raised $40,000 for the Shriners Hospital.
   In 1983 he had a TV show on the local CBC called Midday. It attracted 15,000 viewers compared to 140,000 for The Flintstones on at the same time. He also wrote a political column for the Sunday Express.
   In 1984 his put aside his too-busy-to-get-married shtick and hitched up with a gym teacher from John Abbott named Judy Gill. She was also an overachiever, as she had a fitness column, an MBA and a PhD. He was described in 1985 as a CBC Sportscaster.
  He retired from teaching in 2008. He is, according to Wikipedia, the senior citizenship judge of Canada.
   Springate is also a sort of lifelong confirmed bachelor in all that implies, which is another accomplishment given the narrow-mindedness during those old times when certain people were oppressed for being different.