[BRIEF NOTE] How Not to Secure Farm Aid
Mar. 9th, 2005 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThis morning, I listened bemused as Andy Barrie of CBC Radio 1's Metro Morning conducted a somewhat condescending sneering interview with Randy Hillier, president of the Lanark Landowners Association and leader of a massive protest of farmers at Queen's Park.
Since I don't drive, I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of CBC Radio's reports of moving gridlock in downtown Toronto. I can confirm that certain of Mr. Hillier's tactics are a bit bizarre.
Yes, I send my friends E-mails with attachments of pictures of dead animals named after them all the time. It's all good fun. I just don't understand why I haven't heard from them in months. The man who set himself on fire at Queen's Park during the protest--apparently for unconnected reasons--only made an off-kilter situation somewhat more so.
Back to the interview: After announcing his support for creating a province of rural Ontario--apparently promoted on the Lanark Landowners Association's website, though I've not been able to find the document--and suggesting that he would like it if Torontonian separatism got off the ground, Mr. Hillier said that his goal, in creating massive gridlock and inconvenience for Torontonian drivers, was to make sure that urban Ontarians knew that farmers had serious problems. I fear that the net effect of this day's events may be to convince them that farmers are the problems.
This would be unfortunate. With a few exceptions, rural economies across Canada have tended to do badly relative to their urban counterparts, experiencing decline first in relative then in absolute terms. Again, with a few exceptions, rural economies have relatively few ways (both viable plans and mechanisms to enforce these plans) to try to recoup the ground that they've lost relative to urban economies. Wayne Roberts' suggestion in NOW last month that farmers shift to higher-value-added products--specialty crops, agro-tourism, and the like--is good in theory. Whether the plan actually is viable, or whether it can be implemented, is another thing altogether. Given the existing trajectory of decline, it couldn't hurt to try.
Various politicians and farming organizations have made the point that Mr. Hillier and the Lanark Landowners Association aren't representative of the majority of Ontarian farmers. This is doubtless true. What seems equally true is that their actions are testament to a growing desperation of a minority of farmers. Similarly true, I fear, is that more days of protest like today won't exactly endear Ontarian farmers to the non-farm population. I can imagine a time where urban Ontarians will ignore rural Ontario to death, and feel justified in doing so. Creative policy options, again, are desperately needed.
Group leader Randy Hillier, of the Lanark Landowners Association, expects busloads of protestors and 500 to 600 tractors to converge on Queen's Park, starting at 9 a.m., for a 1 p.m. rally.
The organization was formed by Hillier about a year ago, in response to what some farmers considered weak representation by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. It is fighting what it calls "legalized theft through excessive regulations and over-legislation" of farms, rural lands and businesses.
Its manifesto demands laws to protect the "heritage, culture and lifestyle of rural Ontario." It adds: "The choice is clear for rural Ontario and farmers: either accept and sanction the status quo of injustice, corruption and never-ending theft of farm incomes, or demand a future of justice and prosperity."
Since I don't drive, I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of CBC Radio's reports of moving gridlock in downtown Toronto. I can confirm that certain of Mr. Hillier's tactics are a bit bizarre.
Randy Hillier, president of the Lanark Landowners Association, sent a message to Dombrowsky containing a photo of a dead deer named "Leona." Dombrowsky said she turned the message over to police.
"That's clearly disturbing to receive e-mail like that, as an elected representative," she said, "and I am not going to be intimidated by those sorts of tactics."
Hillier said he was simply trying to get some government action on nuisance deer in Lanark County.
"Yeah, I think that got our point across," Hillier said. "Maybe we have a different sense of humour."
Yes, I send my friends E-mails with attachments of pictures of dead animals named after them all the time. It's all good fun. I just don't understand why I haven't heard from them in months. The man who set himself on fire at Queen's Park during the protest--apparently for unconnected reasons--only made an off-kilter situation somewhat more so.
Back to the interview: After announcing his support for creating a province of rural Ontario--apparently promoted on the Lanark Landowners Association's website, though I've not been able to find the document--and suggesting that he would like it if Torontonian separatism got off the ground, Mr. Hillier said that his goal, in creating massive gridlock and inconvenience for Torontonian drivers, was to make sure that urban Ontarians knew that farmers had serious problems. I fear that the net effect of this day's events may be to convince them that farmers are the problems.
This would be unfortunate. With a few exceptions, rural economies across Canada have tended to do badly relative to their urban counterparts, experiencing decline first in relative then in absolute terms. Again, with a few exceptions, rural economies have relatively few ways (both viable plans and mechanisms to enforce these plans) to try to recoup the ground that they've lost relative to urban economies. Wayne Roberts' suggestion in NOW last month that farmers shift to higher-value-added products--specialty crops, agro-tourism, and the like--is good in theory. Whether the plan actually is viable, or whether it can be implemented, is another thing altogether. Given the existing trajectory of decline, it couldn't hurt to try.
Various politicians and farming organizations have made the point that Mr. Hillier and the Lanark Landowners Association aren't representative of the majority of Ontarian farmers. This is doubtless true. What seems equally true is that their actions are testament to a growing desperation of a minority of farmers. Similarly true, I fear, is that more days of protest like today won't exactly endear Ontarian farmers to the non-farm population. I can imagine a time where urban Ontarians will ignore rural Ontario to death, and feel justified in doing so. Creative policy options, again, are desperately needed.
