OWEN SOUND, ONT.–A Progressive Conservative member of the Legislature says he thinks Toronto should become its own province.
He said rural Ontario is fighting a losing battle against "a Toronto mentality," adding that Toronto decision-makers ignore rural voices.
His big complaint--well, the coyote problem looms large, as does "red tape" for food producers.
Of course, unless the producers start selling to one another, it isn't immediately clear how separating from T.O. would solve the problem (or more specifically, separating Toronto off from the rest of Ontario--Rurontario would get the 905 ring). It isn't likely anyone here would want to lower their food safety standards to make it easier for a bunch of beef farmers to sell us downer cows, just because said farmers elect a different government. But if you look at this article on the same meeting of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture, Murdoch's strategy seems to be clear: partition would allow Rurontario to blackmail Torontario:
Murdoch says Toronto would still rely on the rest of the province for many of its essentials, such as food, energy and raw materials.
"Where are they going to get their power? We've got a nuclear plant. We don't need Toronto," said Murdoch, who is annoyed that new wind energy proposals are in rural Ontario.
But I'm not sure that anyone in London, for example--which would apparently be the capital of the breakaway province--would want to eat rancid steak either, just because their fellow Rurontarions are looking to cut costs.
In any event, I am sooo hoping that Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak looks kindly on Mr. Murdoch's ideas. In fact, I hope he's willing to campaign on them.
5 comments:
Bills tongue in cheek comments have succeeded is highlighting the disconnect between the vast majority that comprise urban “big city” folks and the “rural minority”. Your comments totally justify his concerns in that they show a great misunderstanding of the rural point of view.
"Your comments totally justify his concerns in that they show a great misunderstanding of the rural point of view."
What's the rural point of view? Bitching about Toronto?
Guaranteed, two weeks after they separate, they'll start bitching about those bureaucrats in London who don't understand "the rural point of view."
Murdoch needs to travel away from bucolic, pleasant, prosperous, "well-infrastructured" rural Ontario to places states like upstate New York to see what real urban indifference to the hinterland looks like.
Oh please Rural, stop trying to transfer the saskalberta line about the disconnect with the 'western' point of view into Ontario politics. Murdoch's beef is that the ultrarightwingnut point of view will never be elected in Ontario - and I have to point out that even without Toronto the province's population would still be more urban than rural.
My local PC MPPs here, Elizabeth Witmer and Ted Arnott, are an example of where the Tories should be in regards to rural/urban issues. The Murdochs and Hilliers in the OntPC's are what is killing the party and allowing McGuinty to stay in power.
But by all means, please keep propping up the Murdochs, Hilliers and Hudaks in the party, because Ontario really wants to go back to the Mike Harris days.
And take Ti's advice and visit upstate New York sometime, then you can come back and complain about the urban/rural disconnect we have.
This isn't surprising. The only way Hudak could win an election in Ontario is if the GTA secedes first.
This is my lifelong nightmare come true. The parochial bitching I got so fed up with in Northern Ontario in my youth transformed into a national conversation.
I blame the Internet. A while ago, a burning controversy in Bancroft, Ontario, as played out in the local newspaper was same-sex marriage marriage and the Islamification of the Western World. This is in Bancroft, where one would sooner find Bigfoot than a gay couple or a Muslim.
I spend a lot of time outside Toronto. There's *isn't* a huge cultural divide between urban and rural Ontarians. What there is is the constant overreaction to minor slights and insults, amplified and exploited by cretinous drunks like Hillier and Murdoch.
Post a Comment