A friend has asked that I post this obituary on AR. I did not know Dan Thomey, but he must have been a legend among Canada's hunters and shooters.

Bill Quimby

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Dear Bill,

A man named Dan Thomey has just died of cancer. He did far more for hunters in Canada than any single person ever has. For example,

1) He created Ontario Out of Doors Magazine without a nickle to hjs name and took the circulation to 40,000 an then he sold it. He carried the news of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters which only had 4,000 members at the time.

They dropped their own magazine Angler and Hunter and then later acquired Ontario Out of Doors which by then had a circulation of more than 100,000 and there are now about 720 organized hunting and fishing clubs in Ontario. Danny, more than anyone else, made that growth possible.

2) He organized The Great Salmon Hunt in Lake Ontario. He tried to sell it to the Toronto Sun for $15,000 but they didn't want it so he sold the promotion to the Toronto Star for $50,000. It ran very successfuly for a number of years. Not sure if it still exists. The Toronto Star has fallen on hard times.

3) Danny was the first (and only) publisher to disgrace big name personalities who used their public personas to attack hunters. For example, he did an expose of the late Pierre Berton (Editor of the Toronto Star and a regular on CBC Television).

Berton had a TV show called the "Great Debate." The idea was to have a hunter and non hunter debate. The audience was supposed to listen to the arguments and vote for one or the other to see who won the debate. Berton allegedly rigged the vote.

It was reported that he stacked the audience with nobody but animal rights activists who pretended to be pro hunting and when the debate was over they pretended that they had been swayed by the anti-hunting argument. Danny got Berton's staff to confess to what they had done and exposed Pierre Berton for fraud.

4) Most of all Danny demonstrated to Canadian hunters by example exactly how they could take control of the Canadian political arena but to this day they have never tried to do so and that remains a puzzle.

The moment Pierre Trudeau announced gun registration Danny decided to knock off the president of the Liberal Party of Canada who lived in Orangeville riding. He used his magazine to create the "Proud to be a Hunter Fund." People gave $5 for a badge. He raised $65,000. Then he analysed the Liberal president's voting district and found it was 1/3 Italian.

In those days the vertical magazines could not legally endorse a candidate in the month leading up to an election - but newspapers could endorses candidates the day before an election so Danny created a one issue newspaper called "Canadian Hunter and Shooter News. He printed thousands of anti-liberal copies and 1/3 were translated into italian. The local Orangeville
gun club distributed them door to door the day before the election.

The president of the Liberal Party, i think his Name was Ross Milne, but I just forget, lost by 10,000 votes. Canada's shocked politcal pundits could not understand what had happened. They didn't know but it was Danny who stuck it in the Liberal Party's ear.

Later Danny met with Colonel Merle Prebble who started the ILA at the NRA. Merle explained that a better tactic would have been to concentrate the money on changing many swing ridings, where voting was close, than to knock off a symbolic big wheel.

Danny took Merle's advice - and now that Canadian hunting organizations can publish on the internet and can't be levered with mailing rates, it would be simple for Canadian hunters to control the political system.

They only have to win enough seats to control the balance of power - say 15 seats per election - and that will make all political parties very hunter friendly.

Danny Boy was such a fine, humble and courageous man. He will be really missed but what a great role model and martyr he he has become for young Canadian hunters of the future!

Danny is survived by his wife Jeannie and his daughter Laura.

Never heard of the man before, but he sounds like a real loss to hunters and gun owners.

Grizz

We lost a couple legends in the outdoors to cancer here in Canada this hear. Very sad!

I was a member of his Ganaraska Valley Fishing Club for about 10 years. Private club on what was then the best Rainbow trout fishing waters in the province.

Man didn't back down from anyone. Helped that he was always accompanied by at least one Schutzhund-trained German Shepherd.

He made good use of his property - the fishing club, a big maple syrup operation (he won the Canadian title in 1994 or something), even harvesting wild fiddleheads for commercial sale every spring.