The Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship
What the medal is
First presented in 1973, the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship recognises Ontarians for exceptional leadership and volunteer service. It ranks immediately beneath the Order of Ontario, making it the province’s second-highest honour, and it is presented by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Recipients may use the post-nominal letters OMC.
It goes to a small number of Ontarians each year. Twenty were honoured in the round that included Sam.
What it requires
The criteria are unusually specific about motive. Nominees must show exceptional long-term efforts and outstanding contributions to the well-being of their communities — demonstrating generosity, kindness or self-sacrifice, given “without expectation of recognition or compensation.”
Two words in that sentence do the work. Long-term rules out the single grand gesture. Without expectation rules out service performed for a title, a contract, or a campaign.
The rule about elected office
The medal’s eligibility terms state that no elected federal, provincial or municipal representative may receive it while they remain in office. It is an honour reserved for private citizens.
Sam earned his as one — a business consultant volunteering on his own time, with no public position to be seen doing it from.
Why he received it
For more than a decade of work across Windsor-Essex: over 700 pairs of work shoes donated through the Unemployed Help Centre, the turkeys for Windsor’s Downtown Mission Thanksgiving meals, socks and meals for people experiencing homelessness, board games for children in care, and service on community boards including as chairman of the Community Service Projects Committee at the Rotary Club of Windsor.
Alongside it, the Community Champion Award from the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor. Read the full record of volunteer service.
Sam is running for mayor because he wants to keep doing at Town Hall what he has been doing for a decade without one. (Campaign position.)
Sources: Government of Ontario, Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship (eligibility criteria and honours ranking); Windsor News Today, “Three Windsor-Essex residents among recipients of Good Citizenship Medal,” April 16, 2026.