Terry Pierce Jr.'s experience in refereeing hockey could come in very handy for the new project he's taken on, trying to win the Ward 6 seat on Mississauga City council from a pair of renowned politicians.
There's likely to be a lot of...ah... rhetoric flying between ex-MP Carolyn Parrish and ex-councillor Ron Starr. Pierce figures he might be able to jump in the middle and draw some attention to his own campaign by calling a few instigator penalties on his high-profile opponents.
"Yeah, I don't think my chances are so good based on the two big front-runners," laughed Pierce, who registered to run on his 34th birthday to give himself a little bit of added luck.
If you're counting, he makes the fourth candidate in the marquee race that is already larger than many expected. Olive Rose Steele, who ran for public school trustee in the same ward in 2003, is also in the field.
Pierce's dad, a long-time Mississaugan, was an NHL referee for nine years ending in 1977 and his son spent many years trying to follow in his skates. Now Pierce Jr. tends bar in the city centre, where he can walk to work from his Elm Dr. condo.
"I'd be walking to City Hall so that $17,000 car allowance they get - I would not have to touch it," he laughs.
But politics is no joke to Pierce, who grew up mostly in Streetsville and has lived here all his life, save for three years spent earning a degree in kinesiology at the University of New Brunswick.
"My heart's always been in Mississauga," he said. "It's almost a joke among my friends. I can't tell you who America is at war with, but I can tell you about the accident at Mavis and Britannia. Since I was in Grade 9, Mississauga is almost all I care about."
The candidate's first instinct was to run in the community he knows so well, Streetsville, but there was one problem with that.
"I really like George Carlson."
So, ironically, he's going to be taking on Carlson's pal Parrish as a result.
Pierce Jr. wants to stick to bread-and-butter issues like gridlock and plans to try an old-fashioned approach that seems to be going out of style: knocking on all the doors he can in the ward.
"I'm starting next week. Working in the bar industry, my days are free."
As he talks out loud about his approach, Pierce Jr. seems to settle on a campaign strategy against the heavyweights.
"They are setting themselves up for three or six years from now (when they run for mayor)," said Pierce Jr. "I'm going to be involved in just being a councillor. I hope people will see past the fact that they want to set themselves up for what's down the road. I don't want to be a one-term councillor.
"You never know. Stranger things have happened."