by SUSAN MANN
The Liberal position favouring wind turbines may have contributed to Thursday night’s election defeat of Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell and Environment Minister John Wilkinson.
The two cabinet ministers were among several Liberal defeats as the party lost more than half of the seats it previously held in southwestern Ontario. But the Liberals still managed to squeak out their third election victory winning a minority government with 53 seats, while the Progressive Conservatives won 37 seats and the New Democrats have 17 seats.
PC Lisa Thompson, general manager of the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative, won in Huron Bruce with 19,126 votes to Mitchell’s 14,663 votes and NDP candidate Grant Robertson’s 9,374 votes. He is a former Ontario coordinator for the National Farmers Union (NFU).
Thompson, who raises goats for meat on her farm, says turbines were only one reason for her win over Mitchell.
“Over the last seven years rural Ontario seemingly has lost its voice,” she explains. In Huron-Bruce, the riding has been losing schools, jobs and its municipal autonomy. She says corporations drove wind energy developments in a top-down fashion “as opposed to an economic strategy that made sense for local communities and municipalities.”
The election results are a loud and clear message to Premier Dalton McGuinty “that rural Ontario matters and they want to be treated as equal partners at the table,” she says.
Is there an agriculture critic’s position in Thompson’s future? She says her number one priority is to represent the hard working families of Huron-Bruce and anything that comes after that she will take in stride.
Maria Van Bommel, Mitchell’s parliamentary assistant and the MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, lost to PC Monte McNaughton. He won with 19,348 votes to Van Bommel’s 12,424 votes. Environment Minister John Wilkinson, 13,652 votes, was defeated in Perth-Wellington by PC Randy Pettapiece, who got 14,282 votes.
Neither Mitchell nor Van Bommel could be reached for comment.
In eastern Ontario, a former agriculture minister, Leona Dombrowsky, the current education minister, lost in her Prince Edward-Hastings riding to PC Todd Smith. He won with 18,732 votes compared to Dombrowsky’s 15,688 votes.
Mark Wales, Ontario Federation of Agriculture vice president, says the election was fought based on issues that were important to the people of each riding and who the candidates were. It really wasn’t about the parties or the leaders.
He agrees with observers who say wind turbines may have been the deciding factor that blew Mitchell and Wilkinson out of their ridings. He isn’t sure what happened in Van Bommel’s riding but “it could have been a bit of spill over on the wind.”
Wales believes a Liberal minority government is a positive development in the provincial political landscape as far as the Federation is concerned. “It offers lots of opportunities. All three parties had many of our policy positions in their platforms.”
All parties supported the business risk management programs, environmental goods and services payments and properly funded rural municipalities, he says, noting there was a difference in energy policies between the Liberals and Conservatives.
Wales says it was nice to see a farmer elected to the NDP caucus – dairy farmer John Vanthof who won in the Northern Ontario riding of Timiskaming Cochrane.
Joe Dama, NFU Ontario coordinator, agrees a minority government is positive. “They’ll all want to listen to us and I think that will help us out,” he says. All three parties are in favour of the risk management program and they will all be trying to help “us out to make sure the risk management program is fully funded through the feds as well.”
Dama says he was surprised by Mitchell and Van Bommel’s defeat. He says he thought they both worked hard for farmers.
As for who takes over Mitchell’s job as agriculture minister, a spokesperson at Ontario Liberal Party headquarters says her replacement hasn’t been named yet. On Friday morning, the Liberals issued a press release announcing Dwight Duncan will remain as finance minister and he has been asked to immediately start working on an economic update for Ontarians.
Henry Stevens, president of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, couldn’t be reached for comment. BF
Comments
The turbines might have been an issue in some areas but there are lots of areas that Green Energy was not on the radar and the Liberals lost also.
The Liberals have shown nothing short of contempt towards agriculture in the last 8 years.
Dissatisfaction with the ruling party is growing in Rural Ontario.
McGinty and his liberals might want to make a "note to self" ...Turbins in 416 might get you a vote but they are not the same as turbines in a rural areas.
Agriculture is a file with a minister. Treat it as such and not just a commenting agency to Natural resources and environment to be ruled by NGOs like SPCA Ducks unlimited and Hunters and anglers.
You will loose your seat... needing no interpretation.
Agriculture WAS a file with a minister. With the talk of a smaller cabinet, and the amount of rural seats lost, don't be a bit surprised if McGuinty rolls MNR and OMAFRA together, and maybe Northern Development too, into a "Ministry of things that happen outside Toronto"
"Ministry of things that happen outside Toronto"
that is better than tim horton
Mc Ginty build some turbines in liberal GTA Toronto and have the tubin crowd finance them let the GTA become a province .
Ordinary rural Ontario and farmers have spoken they got rid of 2 past ministers of Agriculture, It was a known that the premier was runing these 2 ministers, they were figure heads.
Selfish politics and farm leaders who should represent farmers best balanced short and long term needs who wont stand up to government has done untold harm to rural Ontario. To bad farmers dont understand how they are being used and farmers should hold their leaders accountable for their loses.
Farmers structural and economic problems will never be solved unless farmers learn how to use the law to convict wrong doing and acts of justified legal harm.
But don't let facts get in the way of a good rant. And it was the Conservatives who set up the system that the Liberals used to expand IWTs. But again let's not let facts get in the way.
we should vote for a party that showed rural Ontario 8 years of contempt previous to that. Remember the NMA anyone. It is still causing headaches for anyone that wants to expand their farm operation. As well it was Harris and then Eves that began the decline of importance of rural Ontario. Spend a few moments looking up facts instead of just typical knee-jerk reactions.
Carol Mitchell became my MPP by defeating two-term Tory MPP, and Minister of Agriculture, Helen Johns, who got elected by defeating one-term NDP member, Paul Klopp.
I worked with them all, I like them all, but all three got swept out of office because of "the company they kept". I never saw any of them show any disdain to anyone, and found all of them to be above reproach, at all times.
The "writing was on the wall" for Mitchell when, earlier this year, her government abruptly cancelled plans for off-shore wind turbines, but remained adamant about promoting land-based ones - nobody in the Liberal party could explain why off-shore turbines were so bad, and why, by comparison, land-based turbines were so good.
Sometimes politicians can get away with being inconsistent - this time, at least in rural Ontario, they didn't.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
I believe Carol Mitchell and Maria VanBommel were genuinely nice people when you met them on the street in their own environment.
I believe they did try to forward the best interests of their communities.
Having said that, I also believe McGuinty held a stern hand on all things rural and agriculture.
I believe McGuinty has his own ideas about "agriculture" and dictated to his minister what they could or could not say or do.
McGuinty, in my view is the real villian in rural Ontario.
He sold out agriculture in Ontario.
It is fine to be nice people but Ontario political history teaches you can not serve your local constituents needs and as a MPP serve your government party, your premier, your whip at the same time. Your local constituents are normal losers in political governess
These 2 defeated MPPs are turned out to pasture with their needs taken care of by the tax payers and no doubt will have a perks job given them, in other words "cash for life"
If I recall correctly, I seem to recall that not long ago, wind turbines were being touted by government, and by some farm groups, as being "good" for farmers - I haven't heard a peep about that lately.
Secondly, given that the governing party seems to be, with the exception of Essex, a completely city-based party, who could possibly be, and/or who would even want to be, Minister of Agriculture?
Stephen Thompson, Clinton, ON
Looks like liberals have a city based Toronto GTA provincial govt,.... rural ontario are nobodies
will Honorable Ginty pick a newby MPP as min of agr cause the GTA MPPs would further rape rural ontario
Who will have the baggage to be Minister of Agr? who will they spin RMP and green energy?
McGiunty applauded the fact that his government has a major minority.
McGuinty is one seat short of a majority.
Looks like he is going to be congenial and appoint the speaker of the house from the ranks of the PC or NDP.
That would void a vote on the opposition and make the liberals a majority vote.
Rural Ontario has no hope.
Unsigned personal comment removed by editors.
So criticism of the Liberals is okay, but don't dare criticize the Conseravtives is that it? By your measure all the unsigned comments should be removed.
Editor's note: This comment has been modified. It was signed but there was no phone number provided. That is a requirement specified in our guidelines and it allows us to verify the writer's identity. This prevents the use of a third party's identity. By signing your comment you still can't libel any individual or group but you will receive more latitude.
I gave a first hand account of what the camapign was like. It could have been easily verified by contacting candidates or voters in Huron-Bruce. Heck all you had to do was pick up a paper from the riding and see the attack ad run by the Conservatives. This was a very, very dirty campaign here. But it seems you are more comfortable with the myth that it had something to do with turbines.
MPP Jeff Leal (Peterborough), one of the few surviving Liberals with a partially rural constituency as the Liberals were decimated outside urban centres.
It has often been said that anytime a story makes the front page of the Globe and Mail, especially with 865 succinct comments, politicians and cabinet ministers had better take note!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-election/how-mcguin...
Too many Canadian politicans , you forgot Farm Leaders have got away with being inconsistent
Now that Mitchell, VanBommel are gone we will probably get the leftovers that McGinty has been passing by the other times.
We will not get representation but I can see lots of confrontation.
We're in deep trouble with this minority government with no creditable rural representation.
Editor's note: This comment has been modified.
You seem to think farmers matter in Ontario and maybe some thought might be expended on our future leader.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
McGuinty would as soon dismantle all things agricultural in Ontario if he could but he has a number of Constitutional obligations in regards to Agriculture that he cannot avoid, at this time.
If we get any semblance of a Minister to represent farmers it's because McGuinty will grudgingly appoint one. He is biding his time for Constitutional amendments, of which I would speculate, the process to commence early next year.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/globe-to/foodstock-...
This article starts with:
On a wooded lot cut with winding pathways 120 kilometres north of Toronto, a united front of city and country folk will amass on Sunday to mount their advance in an ongoing clash.
Please take the time to read it, especially the last paragraph:
For now, the push for food has united an unlikely crew in Melancthon.
“This has given us this rallying point around which rural and urban communities can realize our common interests,” said Paul Decampo, president of Slow Food Toronto. “We have much more in common than we can ever be separated by.”
“This has given us this rallying point around which rural and urban communities can realize our common interests,” said Paul Decampo, president of Slow Food Toronto. “
They had better start realizing that our local Ontario processors doctor up our food with not sugar but mainly high Fructose sugar which is not natural and which our pancreas and kindneys can not process like natural sugar. The result being high rolls of midwaist fat on young people and middle aged alike. High fructose sugar is killing us and the corn farmers of the 80's promoted to start the Ontario processing factory that would use their corn to produce it.
Processed foods are not good for health and nobody is investigating it.
Few people talk about this but the problem is getting bigger with down the road higher health care cost
Send The Premier Your Thoughts
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Government of Ontario
Whitney Block, Room 4620
99 Wellesley St. W.
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
Fax: (416) 325-3745
Telephone: (416) 325-3777
Whats the point having a "good minister"?
Unsigned comment modified by editor
one has to start thiking that editors are modifying too much and affecting democracy.
Today you dont know that the real truth is
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