Northeastern Ontario tributes pour in for Jim Prentice, dead in plane crash

Less than a day after the plane Jim Prentice was in went down, killing him and three other people, tributes are coming in from northeastern Ontario, where the former Alberta premier was born and spent his early years.

• Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice among 4 killed in B.C. plane crash

Prentice was born in South Porcupinein 1956 and moved to nearby Schumacher as a child. Both communities are now part of Timmins. He latermoved to Alberta with his family when he was 13.

Family friend Lou Battochio remembers Prentice always playing on the skating rink at Schumacher Public School with his friends.

"He was a likable kind of guy, he was always out with his friends," he said. "A good all-around guy that enjoyed road hockey, played some ball in the summertime."

While Prentice showed a lot of promise as a junior hockey player before a knee-on-knee hit ended his career, Battochio remembered him being very keen about school, and doing very well, even at a young age.

His future ambitions didn't surprise Battochio at all.

"I guess it would follow through that what he did here in this small town, he did where he lived in Alberta," he said, noting Prentice's rise to become a lawyer and eventually getting elected.

"It makes us old timers feel very good: a boy from a small town becoming premier of a province."

Condolences from a rival MP, flags at half mast

On Friday, Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus of the NDP sent his condolences.

"I faced off against Jim many times in the House of Commons but I had the greatest respect for him," he said in an e-mail. "He was a Timmins boy and his mom and my dad were childhood friends," he continued, adding that Prentice carried himself with "integrity and professionalism."

The flag at Timmins city hall was also lowered to half mast on Friday "in honour and memory" of Prentice, the city announced.