It's their bread and butter

From the Standard Freeholder;Glengarry Landowners are trying to iron out differences with provincial body

"There are two basic problems," said Jamie MacMaster, a GLA spokesperson, after he met Friday with a transition steering committee of the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA).

"There's a strong faction in the OLA and they wanted to endorse and field candidates in the next fall's provincial election.

"The GLA has always had an aversion to (running candidates) as a political party," MacMaster said, noting the GLA did encourage members to vote for several municipal election candidates last fall, most of whom eventually won.

The second disagreement is more complex.

And divisive. The OLA's continued support for Shawn Carmichael, and Leeds Grenville OLA president Jacqueline Fennell's bid to sell raw milk without quota, is never going to sit well with dairymen in Glengarry. Or I suspect in Dundas or Stormont. A lot of folks milking cows in those counties and most aren't even close to considering life without supply management.

"There's one part of the rural community which thinks it's great (such as dairy farmers), and one part who think it is the worst pox visited upon farmers."

These brewing concerns came to a head in December when the GLA withdrew from the OLA.

Randy Hillier, long rumoured to be considering a run at elected politics resigned as president of the OLA last week.

"We're saying, let's (get our differences) resolved," MacMaster said.

"When you see a map of Ontario and you superimpose our associations, we got a huge swath covered.

"The OLA could be a strong voice for rural residents."

Hard to disagree with MacMaster on that. Of the non-divisive issues, the Rural Revolution has been, not only strong, but effective.