Provincial election results deepen rural/urban divide

Thursday, June 12, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

Last night’s Liberal majority win in Ontario means there’s “an even deeper rural/urban divide in the province,” says New Democratic Party agriculture critic John Vanthof.

Vanthof, who won his second election as the MPP for Timaskaming-Cochrane, says  “we have to look what this government’s going to do and see if they are going to react. Obviously they know there’s problems, judging by the vote count and judging by the reaction they’ve had in rural Ontario.”

But he notes “it’s a new government. I’m hoping they will react favourably and try to work with the people in rural Ontario and try to work with the people who represent rural Ontario.”

Vanthof made the comments in response to the results, which shows southwestern, central and eastern Ontario mainly voted for the Progressive Conservatives, while the Liberals took a lot of the Greater Toronto Area and Toronto ridings. The New Democrats were strong in the north. Of the 107 ridings, the Liberals won 59, while the PCs won 27 and the NDP won 21. The Green Party again failed to elect any candidates and leader Mike Schreiner lost in Guelph.

The Liberals couldn’t be reached for comment. Spokesman Gabe De Roche says by email he was having “difficulty getting hold of someone who could go on record with you.”

UPDATE Friday June 13 6:31 p.m.: In an email sent Friday evening, De Roche wrote that the provincial Liberals' plan "includes strong support for agricultural producers and food processors, with new funding for job creation in the sector and additional protection for farmland. We are the only party to lay out specific commitments for the agri-food sector and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the sector." End of update

Vanthof hopes to retain his position as agriculture critic for the New Democratic Party but “that’s up to the leader and I will serve where she puts me.”

The new Liberal government has to look at the business risk management program and  at how it can make that program “once again bankable and predictable for individual farmers,” he says. “We hear a lot of talk about the overall cap but we have to look at how it works on individual farms” and that the program can balance out the up and down cycles of the agricultural industry.

Government funding for the program has been capped at $100 million a year. But a coalition of farm groups that use the program have been asking the political parties to support their request to raise the cap to $175 million a year.

Retaining the Oxford riding for his sixth election is Progressive Conservative MPP Ernie Hardeman, that party’s agriculture critic. Hardeman, who is Vanthof’s uncle, says he was unpleasantly surprised by the election results. Before the election, polls were showing it was a tie between the Liberals and Conservatives and “I had hoped that would turn in our favour as people went to the polls.”

The election results show that rural Ontarians didn’t agree with the Liberal message that it’s one province and the party is working hard to address everyone’s concerns, he says. “Our caucus will be far more rural as a percentage than it was before (the election was held),” he notes, adding the PCs didn’t lose any seats in rural Ontario, except for Northumberland-Qunite West, which was won by Liberal Lou Rinaldi. Previously the riding was held by PC Rob Milligan.

The seats that changed to ensure the Liberals got a majority were in the 905 area code area, surrounding Toronto, he notes.

As for priorities, the government must move forward on job creation and the economy, Hardeman notes. “We need to get our fiscal house in order because we’re going in the wrong direction.”

Hardeman, who has been at Queen’s Park for 20 years, says he doesn’t know if he will retain his position as agriculture critic. “The leadership has to decide that and we have to wait first of all to see how we’re going to do the leadership.” PC leader Tim Hudak, who won his riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook, has resigned but will stay on until a new leader is picked. Hardeman says he has no plans to run for leader of the Conservative party.

The other party leaders also won their ridings – Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne won in Don Valley West and New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwarth won in Hamilton Centre. Grant Crack, the Liberal MPP for Glengarry Prescott Russell and parliamentary assistant to the agriculture and food minister, won his riding. One of the people he defeated was PC candidate Roxanne Villeneuve Robertson, the daughter of former Conservative agriculture minister Noble Villeneuve.

Also winning his Peterborough riding was MPP Jeff Leal, the rural affairs minister.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is ready to work with the new government and is looking for action in a number of different areas that were halted by the election. In addition, the federation “will work with all three parties. We want to make sure we work with them all,” says president Mark Wales.

He called the election results “interesting” and “unexpected. So much for polling.”  Most of the riding changes in the election means Liberals “now have a fairly extensive belt from beyond Prince Edward County all the way right through down into Niagara,” Wales notes.

With the new government’s budget coming out in about three weeks, the federation will be watching to ensure “the infrastructure announcements in the budget (released before the election and that was defeated by the New Democrats) gets moving as soon as possible,” he says.

One of the big things the federation will be looking to see the government implement is natural gas infrastructure in rural Ontario.

The federation also wants to ensure there’s a good solution of Kemptville College in eastern Ontario, which is slated to close next year. A community task force is looking for other institutions to operate it. “We want to make sure that gets moving now that finally the facilitator can start doing his job working with the local task force,” Wales notes. “We want to see that switch turned on right away.”

Wales says a majority government means they will be able to move their legislation through the house and “some will be brought back” from before the election. The federation is ready to follow those pieces of legislation. Several pieces of legislation were in the committee process and were lost because the election was called. For example, the Great Lakes protection bill was before the committee with “100 proposed amendments, many of them government amendments,” he says, noting the waste reduction bill was poised to be moved to committee before the election was called.

The regulatory change for grain elevators to be assessed as commercial rather than industrial, which they are now, should get done over the summer. “There’s no reason that can’t be in place early this fall,” Wales says.

Lorne Small, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario president, Karen Eatwell, president and Region 3 coordinator for the National Farmers Union – Ontario and Henry Van Ankum, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition, couldn’t be reached for comment. BF