Cam Ecclestone

In the late Nineties, Cam was asked to run for the Office of Reeve (Mayor) of Lutterworth Township including Minden. At the time Cam had a cottage on Gull Lake and lived within the township. The Cottagers Association approached Cam to run for office, as the property taxes in the last 5 years had increased 10% to 13% each year. Cam ran unopposed for the office of Reeve and was elected by acclamation. Cam introduced the concept of zero based budgeting to all dept heads and was able to find some efficiencies in snow removal and waste removal. Cam’s 3 year term ended with tax stability with 0% and minus 1%.

In 2014 Cam ran for the office of Councilor in the Town of Collingwood and came in 3rd out of 18 Candidates Cam served on the Library Board, the standing Committee for Economic Development as well as sitting on the Board of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority. Cam was introduced first hand to the issue of Youth Homelessness when the library closed at 9:00 pm, there were always about 15 kids aged 13 to 29 who had nowhere to go! Cam Just had to do something, so along with a very caring friend (Linda Markowsky) took 6 months and visited over 50 Govt agencies including Group homes, the kids, their parents, teachers, Principals, Health Care Professionals, various County Officials Health Canada-Mental Health personnel. Our work along with a wealthy philanthropist Ray Smith who was an Architect and Builder, we ended up with a 10 bedroom house at 53 Campbell Street to house those who are Homeless-we handed the project over to Home Horizons to run the facility-This is now called the Barbara Weider House.

During my term we were fiscally responsible and dealt effectively with the sale of our 50% stake in Collus The effective sale of our Airport and the Judicial Inquiry into past inappropriate financial irregularities.

Cam graduated from the University of Western Ontario having majored in Business and Economics.

Cam’s early business career was in Sales in the Business Forms industry, starting with RL Crain in the mid‑60s. At RL Crain Cam worked in Toronto as a Salesman and quickly was promoted to District Manager and Regional Manager serving Markets in Toronto Montreal and Edmonton Cam was responsible for achieving various Sales Quotas as well as preparing budgets and achieving profit objectives. Cam received many awards for his accomplishments both in individual sales and as a Sales Manager.

In 1982 Cam joined ABF Business Forms to re-build their Sales force starting from scratch. Cam was responsible for initiating both Marketing and Business Plans as well as developing a Remuneration Plan with various incentives. Within 2 years ABF was achieving all of the objectives set out by the President and Board of Directors.

In 1986 ABF was acquired by the Southam Group and Cam became the Director of Sales for the combined companies, merging two sales forces into one and expanding throughout Ontario. Cam was recognized on many occasions for meeting corporate objectives both from a profit and Sales perspective and achieving many Presidents Club recognition awards.

In 1990 Cam left the Business Forms industry to become an entrepreneur in a family business called Winecraft (a do-it-yourself wine making facility). Winecraft was located in Leaside (Toronto) and quickly (within a year) was at capacity. Winecraft was franchised in 1992 with Cam handling the legal and financial areas, Scott(son) building out the various franchises (13 in all) and Sue (Cam’s wife) managing the corporate store. Winecraft was sold in 2000.

Cam and his wife Sue moved to Collingwood in 2000 to retire! Retirement didn’t sit so well with Cam so in early 2002 Cam became a Financial Advisor with Investment Planning Counsel. Cam built a very successful practice from a zero base to more than 200 families with over 20 million of Assets under management within a time frame of 10 years. The business was sold in 2015.

Cam is married to his High School sweetheart and has 3 Adult children and 6 grandchildren.