Niagara Loses Great Champion For Social Justice and Environmental Protection

By John Bacher

On March 13, 2010, Niagara lost one of its most effective champions for social justice and protecting the environment

Bill Lidkea, who died at age 73, was for 52 years the loving husband of his wife and partner Wilma in these great passions for the earth and human dignity.

Bill was raised in North Bay, where he lived until moving to London, Ontario and received a degree in social work before he and Wilma moved to St. Catharines, Ontario in 1958.

For 23 years, Bill worked as a social worker with Family and Children Services. In 1979, he became a partner in the first private practice consulting service in the Niagara Region, Lidkea, Stob, Venema and Assistance Family Counselling Services where they pioneered in workplace counselling services.

Bill worked in the areas of foster/adoption, individual, marital and family therapy. He had specialized training experience in the areas of foster/adoption, stress management, depression and cognitive therapy. He continued to work with his partners for twenty years until his retirement in 1999.

In 1965, Bill moved from St. Catharines to neighbouring Thorold where he became active in the campaigns that eventually led to the election to the provincial legislature  of a long-time personal friend, Mel Swart. He played a major role in the Thorold area New Democratic Party (NDP) Riding Associations at both the federal and provincial level. In the five past federal and provincial elections, he and Wilma ran the joint NDP  committee rooms in elections for St. Catharines and Thorold.

For decades, Bill served the NDP locally as membership organizer and had one of the strongest memberships in all of Ontario. He was a strong believer in the Canadian Labour Congress’s  affiliation with the NDP and championed labour causes, faithfully attending numerous benefits for striking workers.

It speaks volumes for Bill’s principles that the first time I met him was at an NDP convention, where he fought against the betrayal of principle, by a now leading member of the federa; Liberal Party, Bob Rae.  He loyally manned a booth that his friend Mel established of an unfortunately short-lived organization, New Democrats For Public Auto Insurance.

In creating New Democrats For Public Auto Insurance, Mel and Bill were determined to show that when NDP activists, went door to door, promising to implement this policy, they actually meant it. Mel and Bill strongly believed that the environment had to be an important, but not exclusive part of the NDP’s appeal to voters. For them, unlike Rae, public auto insurance not only meant lower premiums, but a fund for public investment such as hospital services, and a means by insuring safer roads, by better policing compulsory insurance.

 Bill enjoyed spending time with his family with his family to such Niagara Escarpment sties as the St. John Valley, and the St. Catharines drinking water reservoir. His appreciation of this landscape was enhanced by his understanding of how it was protected through the difficult political battles of his friend, Mel Swart. He succeeded in protecting the St. John Valley Conservation Area from becoming a quarry around the time they first began to campaign together.

Bill’s love of the Niagara Escarpment was enhanced by his active participation in the Bruce Trail Association, where our mutual hikes would be enhanced by discussion of politics. He was able to walk the entire length of the trail three times. Wilma, gave me a sense of how difficult it was to meet the goals for one End To End badge, since it took her, with Bill, three years just to walk the length of the trail once.

Like Mel, Bill’s passion for the earth and social justice was heavily shaped by a profound Christian faith, arising from their mutual conviction that we are our brother’s keeper. He joined St. John’s Anglican Church in 1965, and remained till his death one of its most active members.

A close friend of Bill’s, Thorold city councillor Fred Neale shared the fellowship of the Holy Spirit through active involvement in St. John’s Anglican Church with the Lidkea family. He observed how Bill would warmly and patiently use his counselling skills to help the faithful cope and resolve difficult family challenges. Fred recalls how he would do “anything for anybody”, in the parish, and would “just know what to say to do and help people.”

In 1993, Mel, Fred Neal and Bill came together in an important effort to facilitate the development of the Mel Swart Lake Gibson Conservation Park. It was obtained through the donation to the City of Thorold of 27 acres of farmland by the relatives of another future core executive member of the park’s friends group, David Griffiths.

For some 17 years, Bill was one of the Mel Swart Park executive’s most active members, organizing its major fund raising events, and participating in numerous park activities.  These events help pay for reforestation efforts at the park, and the construction of a $200,000 board walk, which increases the public appreciation of the wildlife of Lake Gibson.

Griffiths explained to me how the zealous care for Lake Gibson sparked by the park’s members, has contributed to improved ecological health and bio-diversity. Frogs and Turtles, including the threatened Snapping Turtle, once absent from the lake, have returned. Biologists working with the association discovered the presence of the Endangered Swamp Rose Mallow. As a result of restoration plantings, this species is now better distributed in the park.

 In the last years of his life one of the most important projects that Bill assisted was the Niagara Restoration Council’s (NRC)  Returning to Nature to Niagara: Naturalization of the Thorold -Lake Gibson Corridor Project. During the construction of the Welland Canals, much of the natural habitat surrounding Lake Gibson was neglected or destroyed. To remedy this situation, the project is undertaking forest restoration efforts on public lands owned by the Ontario Power Generation and the City of Thorold, including Mel Swart Park, along with privately owned properties surrounding Lake Gibson. Some 52,000 native trees and shrubs are being planted through the project.

As the NRC’s Environmental Manager, Corey Burant, has pointed out, “ Carolinian Forest zone, encompassing the Niagara Peninsula, is particularly at risk from forest loss due to its high human population and development. The zone boasts the highest diversity of species and habitats in Canada, yet 500 species are rare and threatened, faced with the continuing pressures of urbanization.”

It is highly symbolic that a few days after Bill’s death another giant in the annals of conservation in Niagara, the geographical historian, John Jackson, also entered eternity. One of John’s prophetic visions, was that the Short Hills Provincial Park extend along the belt of public lands surrounding Lake Gibson, to the Welland Canal. As David Griffiths explained to me, what better tribute to Bill’s life could there be than for the provincial government to implement this vision, and in so doing, protect our region from the future threats of climate change.

(John Backer is a resident of St. Catharines, Ontario and a long-time advocate for protecting and preserving rural lands in the Niagara region.)

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