SASKATOON _ Steve Balog says his mother did not come from money, but knew how to give with kindness.
One of the first times he remembers seeing his disinterest was when he stopped to help a child on the side of the road. He was bleeding after falling off his bike.
“We went to help him while we watched the cars go by. I was thinking how could they do that to this kid? “Balog said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
He said his mother went to a nearby school to call an ambulance.
“You help people. That’s what you do. “
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Years later, in 1997, Jo-Anne Balog was injured on the side of a road. The 38-year-old mother was driving with her 18-year-old son in the passenger seat. Another vehicle passed a stop sign and collided with his car near Shellbrook, Sask.
She and her son were taken by ambulance to the hospital where he died.
Twenty-one years later, the other driver, Scott Moe, became Prime Minister of Saskatchewan.
Moe met privately with Steve Balog almost a year ago. The prime minister was following up on a 2020 campaign promise to apologize directly to the Balog family for the accident.
Before the elections, the two men were unfamiliar with each other.
Balog had first come out publicly during the campaign to say that he had recently discovered that Moe was the other driver. Balog said he felt the Saskatchewan Party leader had not been properly held accountable. Moe had received a ticket for failing to come to a complete stop and driving without proper care and attention.
Moe, 48, has been in politics for a decade. Balog, 43, is a scaffold that divides his time between Saskatoon and Edmonton.
They are both parents who share a love of hockey with their children.
And they both carry regrets for the accident.
“I always felt it was my fault and I put it on. Because of my doctor’s appointment, that’s why we were traveling that day, ”Balog said.
“He needed (Moe) to bear some of that guilt, and he took part of it. He definitely let me spill something about him. “
Balog recorded his mid-January visit to a Saskatoon hotel. Moe’s office said the prime minister does not discuss their conversation.
During the meeting, Moe said that he remained at the crash site, but did not see Balog or his mother in the other car.
There were others there who came to help.
“The reason I didn’t … came to talk to you right away is that I had the same accident … I barely remember anything of what was happening,” Moe told Balog.
“Why not me? That’s the question I ask myself… daily. Why was it her and why wasn’t it me?
“I made a lot of mistakes in my life. I regret one day, and that is that day … I am very sorry, the result was that you lost many years with your mother. “
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Moe declined to comment for this story, but said he appreciates Balog meeting with him.
Balog said he is still struggling with his pain, which has only increased during the pandemic. Seeing Moe on television screens leading the province’s COVID-19 response has been a trigger, he said.
Memories of her mother are also emerging in unexpected ways.
Her 11-year-old daughter, who looks like her mother, started crafting when school moved to the Internet. It is a passion that he shares with the grandmother he never knew.
“My mom was always creating something and that’s what I miss the most,” Balog said. “Our house would be full of table mats and figurines.”
Balog said he would like his mother to be there to watch her three children grow up. She would have cooked perogies for them and watched their hockey games.
He tries to channel his toughness, independence and love to improve himself as a man and as a father, he said.
“She was an amazing, hard-working woman who faced adversity multiple times in her life and kept getting up,” said Balog, describing how she worked as a waitress and then went back to school to become a lab technician.
“She decided she wanted something better for us.”
Balog said he still has questions about the police investigation into the accident. In October 2020, he submitted an access to information request to view the RCMP archive. It is still waiting.
Balog said he also has a hard time understanding why Moe didn’t check them in the car, as he thinks his mother would have if the tables were turned.
At the same time, Balog said, he knows he needs to move on.
“(Moe and I) shook hands and that was the biggest thing I wanted to show my son. You have to forgive a person for who they are. “
This Canadian Press report was first published on December 18, 2021.
Reference-globalnews.ca