Looking Back, Moving Forward

Friday, July 24, 2026

How Elmer Buchanan changed Ontario Ag - & how he’s still working for farmers today

By Mary Loggan

For many Ontario farmers, the way the industry looks today — strong general farm organizations, formal revenue insurance programs, farmer-driven environmental stewardship and a growing local-food network — traces back to decisions made when Elmer Buchanan was at Queen’s Park and held the agriculture portfolio in the early 1990s.

As Minister of Agriculture and Food, and later as the province’s first Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Buchanan championed the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act, helped implement early revenue insurance tools and backed the Environmental Farm Plan approach at a time when producers were under intense pressure.

Three decades on, he’s still at it.

Better Farming recently caught up with Buchanan — who’s still farming near Havelock — to discuss how those decisions continue to shape the industry and why he believes farmers must stay organized if they want to be heard.

Career & accomplishments

Buchanan entered provincial politics as a high school vice-principal with next to no experience in agriculture. When the NDP formed government in 1990, his name was floated for the education portfolio.

Instead, Premier Bob Rae gave him agriculture and food.

“It all happened so fast. The day after the election, I looked up what MPPs made and was somewhat shocked … I’d taken about a $30,000 pay cut.

“If you go back and look at the farm papers, they all said, ‘Who the heck is this guy? He’s a high school vice-principal. What does he know about agriculture?’” Buchanan recalls.

“So right away I knew I was up for a challenge.”

He grew up on a small mixed farm near Havelock. “We weren’t a big farm, but I understood what made farmers and rural communities tick.”

His priority was to build credibility. “I knew I had to prove I understood agriculture,” he says. “Farmers learned I would listen, and as time went on, they knew I was trying to do what I could for them.”

Tony Morris, then on the Ontario Federation of Agriculture executive, remembers attitudes shifting. “There was a lot of consternation, but Elmer wanted to understand. He was prepared to listen. That was our first indication that we had someone a little different than the typical politician.”

From 1990 to 1994, Buchanan served as Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture and Food. When a cabinet shuffle loomed, he says farm leaders called him directly.

“They asked if I wanted to stay in agriculture, and I said yes,” he recalls. “They lobbied very hard for me to stay, which is exactly what I wanted — not move somewhere else and leave the bureaucracy to run the show.”

In 1994, he pushed to add “Rural Affairs” to the portfolio, becoming the first Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He says the intent was to give rural residents a stronger voice at the cabinet table and a clear point of contact with the provincial government on issues such as the environment, transportation, planning and housing. Over those years, he also chaired cabinet committees on environment, labour, NAFTA and investment.

Stable funding became his most visible file. Geri Kamenz, then an OFA field representative, recalls why farm groups were pushing.

“When the NDP came in, Elmer was lobbied by the whole farm community to find a way to fund farm organizations,” he explains. “At the OFA, about a third of our revenue was going just to maintaining the membership base — renewing memberships, chasing cheques. It was an absolute tragedy and waste of money when you thought about what that money could be doing for farmers instead.”

Leaders looked at models in Quebec and the United States. “Elmer became the champion of that.”

At the time, Buchanan saw two trends converging: fewer farmers and more fragmented lobbying. “There were fewer farmers in the province, and their voice was being drowned out in terms of voting strength and influence,” he says. “Even in rural ridings, their voice was drowned out by everyone else.” At the same time, “general farm organizations were looking for some way of achieving sustainability.”

The Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act was the response. “We brought in a bill that said every farmer registered over $7,000 had to either support a general farm organization or ask for a refund,” he explains.

At the third reading, he told MPPs, “With the provision for refunds, farmers will effectively be voting with their chequebooks.” Today, he sums it up plainly: “If they don’t like what’s going on, they can ask for their money back.”

The legislation required each general farm organization to provide 25 per cent of its net revenues to its local bodies. “That helped establish effective representation at the local level and made sure the organizations stayed sensitive to grass-roots concerns,” Buchanan says. Religious objectors were granted an exemption from both payment and registration, and provisions were made for francophone and future general farm organizations.

Kamenz says moving ahead was not politically easy. “He led the way at great risk — not just risk to himself, but risk to his party,” he says.

“In hindsight, I would say he was doing what he felt was right, and he was passionate about being right. I was just a very fortunate OFA field rep at Queen’s Park, watching history in the making.”

At the same time, Buchanan was working on income protection. “Farmers were looking for revenue insurance so that when their revenue went down, they’d have some protection,” he recalls.

Working with farm groups and a federal government of a different stripe, he helped bring in the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan and the Net Income Stabilization Account.

“Up until that time, the feds and the provinces couldn’t agree. We did make a start on having government support agriculture through an insurance program where they put some money in, as long as farmers put money in.”

He was also involved in early discussions that led to the Environmental Farm Plan. “There was a lot of concern about how the NDP government would treat agriculture on the environment,” Morris recalls.

Buchanan’s view was that farmers “were part of the solution, not just people you dumped regulations on,” and he backed a farmer-driven stewardship model that remains part of Ontario’s approach.

After leaving cabinet, Buchanan continued in regulatory and board roles.

In 2007, he joined the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission; he was named acting chair in 2008 and vice-chair in 2009. He chaired three industry advisory committees — greenhouse, chicken and sheep — and was later appointed trustee of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers board. He went on to serve as board chair of the Ontario Racing Commission in 2013 and joined the Alcohol and Gaming Commission’s board in 2016.

Bringing people together

Buchanan says one of his clearest early memories from Queen’s Park is the “parade” of commodity groups through his office.

“We might have four or five in an afternoon — soybeans, potatoes, corn, then grains and oilseeds — and they were all asking for different things,” he recalls. “Sometimes they were directly conflicting.”

When he asked senior staff how that was supposed to work, the answer was blunt: if everyone wanted something different, the government did not have to move. “That changed how I approached the job,” he says.

“I was afraid agriculture was going to get drowned out, so I started pushing harder for groups to come up with some common positions, instead of a dozen different asks.”

On the marketing commission, he applied the same lesson. Walking into rooms thick with mistrust, he focused on slowing the conversation down.

“By trying to recognize both sides had valid points and actually listening to what the other side had to say instead of just saying no to everything, we got them to come to the table and work together,” he says. “Once they started talking and planning together, things settled down in the chicken industry.”

His time as trustee of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers board followed a similar pattern. After weeks of negotiation over tomato contracts for Leamington growers and processors, they reached a deal.

“We were able to get processors and growers working better together and come to an agreement,” he says. Then he suggested something new: “After we agreed, I got them all to go to the pub and have a beer … I thought that was a major accomplishment.”

He worked the same way with politicians. “Once the election was over, my view was that people who got elected had to find ways to work together. We had a rural caucus that met monthly, usually at a pub, with Conservatives and Liberals. We talked about rural issues over a beer, and we even had a hockey team with members from all parties.”

For Kamenz, that instinct to pull people into the same room and keep them there is central to Buchanan’s legacy.

“Elmer has always been passionate about getting things to a better place and helping people achieve something better,” Kamenz says.

“He understands politics and can manoeuvre in it as well as anyone I’ve ever met, but his motivation has never been politics. His motivation has always been doing what’s right.”

He contrasts that with what he sees today. “In politics now, we’ve lost sight of that,” Kamenz says. “It’s all about opinion polls and party standing. Doing the right thing seems pretty far down the list. With Elmer, it was always: do the right thing. There was never a wrong time to do the right thing.”

Kamenz says that ethics helped Buchanan earn trust across the table.

“Regardless of whether you were a producer, a processor or a retailer, they all had tremendous respect for Elmer,” he says.

“People would get upset and walk away, but they always came back because they trusted he wouldn’t lead them in a direction that wasn’t healthy for the industry.”

Morris points to stable funding as one example of Buchanan’s willingness to take heat. “He was the one within government that helped the Federation of Agriculture and the Christian Farmers push through the stable funding act,” Morris remembers.

“Of all the ministers I worked with, he was the one who truly bridged that gap between the farmer on the back road and the premier’s office.”

Looking ahead

Today, in his 80th year, Buchanan is not slowing down. “I go to the farm every day and look after the chickens, alpacas and goats,” he says.

“You can’t sit down because you may not last very long once you sit and retire.”

His farm in Havelock has been in his family since 1832, and he still harvests “quite a few acres of hay.”

He keeps busy off the farm too. “Right now, I’m on the Peterborough County Federation of Agriculture.

“A group of people wanted to start a farmers’ market in Havelock. I did that about six years ago, set up a board, and we now have a farmers’ market in Havelock.”

Before COVID, he also helped launch The Havelock Rail after the local paper closed. “About 50 people showed up, and they said, ‘We need a newspaper,’” he recalls. “We set up a committee … It’s monthly, we’re on to No. 82, and we’re still going.”

As chair of Farmers’ Markets Ontario, he sees appetite for local food first-hand. “There’s a rejuvenation, if you will, of farmers’ markets,” he says. “More people are going to farmers’ markets now than there were, say, 10 years ago.”

He is equally interested in winter and urban production. “There is a future for growing things we can eat in the wintertime here rather than importing them from somewhere,” he says.

Seeing Ontario berries in a big-box store last winter, he added, “felt like we’re getting there. We’ve got to do more than talk about buying local. We have to produce it and let people know that it is.”

For farmers thinking about stepping up, his advice reflects what he has tried to practise. “It’s important for farmers to join the local federation or local organization and get out and talk and meet with other farmers,” he says.

“If you live in a cocoon and just do your own thing, you’re not going to be up to date.”

At the same time, “there is a balance between family life, your farm and being involved in different organizations. You don’t just throw everything away and get involved in something.”

He also wants people to see public life more generously.

“Most of the politicians that I know, when they got elected, wanted to do the right thing and were there to help people. There is an attitude out there that all politicians are something, not in a positive way. My view is that’s not the way it really is.”

He returns to the principle that has guided him since those early days. “No one person can accomplish goals and add value without working formally with a board of directors or committee members,” Buchanan says.

“Working together with others, even if they come from a different background, is the only way to accomplish anything worthwhile.” BF