Background
Prior to entering politics, Abel studied economics, industrial sociology, political science, labour history and labour law at the Labour College of Canada in Ottawa. He worked in the purchasing and plant management department of the Wentworth County Board of Education and served 10 years as the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He also served as a National Service Representative for CUPE prior to his election to the provincial legislature. Abel and his wife Debra currently own and operate a cottage resort on Sturgeon Lake near Lindsay, Ontario.
In 1992, while in office, Abel's teenaged son Mark was seriously injured in a skiing accident in New York. He was left paralyzed from the chest down. The family was left with $50,000 in medical bills which was eventually paid with funds raised amongst the local community and donations from all three parties.
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“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
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—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)