Queen’s Park goes country
Leaders brave messy weather and mud at plowing match
WALTON, ONT.— It rained on their parade.
And the muddy fields prevented Ontario’s political leaders from taking part in the annual autumnal rite: competing on tractors to determine who can plow the straightest furrow.
But in the last International Plowing Match before the June 7, 2018 provincial election, Premier Kathleen Wynne could find comfort in the fact that, unlike last year, she was not booed or jeered by participants at the yearly rural expo.
That may be due to her government’s decision to reduce residential electricity bills by 25 per cent this year, though there remains lingering unhappiness about hydro rates.
“I’ll leave it to the analysts to determine what the reception is or not, but we’re working hard for a fairer Ontario where everyone has opportunity,” Wynne said when asked about the warmer welcome this year than at the 2016 plowing match.
“I’m here because agriculture is so important. No matter the party lines, it is important that we support each other,” she said at the event, hosted on Jack Ryan’s farm about 200 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
The premier’s strong defence of supply-management policies — a cornerstone of Canadian agriculture because it protects dairy farmers, among others — as NAFTA negotiations heat up with the U.S. and Mexico was applauded at the event’s opening ceremonies.
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown noted that supply management is not a partisan issue because all parties support it at Queen’s Park.
But Brown stressed that it is closer to home that farmers need to have a hearing.
He said the forthcoming labour reforms in Bill 148 — which will raise the $11.40-an-hour minimum wage to $14 in January and $15 in 2019 — is causing alarm on the family farm.
“There is a frustration. I am glad that Queen’s Park has descended on Huron County because it’s important to hear these concerns,” the PC leader said.
“It’s not necessarily over the $15 — it’s the pace. It’s giving notice so that you can adapt,” he said.
Brown, who has promised to bring in a revenue-neutral carbon tax if elected next year, said “we want to do our part for the environment and rural Ontario wants to do its part for the environment.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who has led the push for a $15 minimum wage, criticized the Liberals for try- ing to exploit it for electoral gain next spring.
“I can’t speak to why the Liberals chose to do the things that they did,” said Horwath.
“We were pretty clear when we brought forward our own policy on minimum wage to try to give some advance warning and notice to the business community and to the farming community that when New Democrats form government, we’re going to look to increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” she said. Green Leader Mike Schreiner pointed to the soggy fields and said “the extreme weather due to climate change” is something all Ontarians are living with these days.