The Rural Voice, 1981-09, Page 25KEITH ROULSTON
Ideas and arguments
get re -cycled
The news item brought back memories,
making me realize just how quickly time had
fled. The Ontario Branch of the National
Farmers Union. fighting extinction, the
article said, was calling for reform to give it
more autonomy.
The article went on to point out the
organization was just a shadow of what it
once was in Ontario in the late 1960 s. down
to about 800 members from about 10,000.
Those halcyon days of the NFU were about
the time I started reporting farm affairs. I'd
missed the General Farm Organization vote,
being off in the city, but when I came back to
the country and started attending farm
meetings it was easy to tell there was a lot of
bitterness in the farm community.
Many of the meetings I first attended were
soul-searching dialogues of the Federation of
Agriculture. Many of the Federation leaders
were wondering if the organization had a
future. Those who thought it had a future
were sure there must be a radical altering of
the structure to give a dramatic new
grass -roots -to -leaders line of communica-
tions. For bewildered farm reporters new
terms like ISM's and regional directors began
to be bandied around at meetings. If the
reporters were confused, some long-time
members were even more confused and upset
at what they saw happening to their
organization and some split with it over the
changes.
The Federation survived, of course. After a
period of confusion and some bitterness, it
rejuvenated itself. The irony of course is that
today it has more than twice as many
members as the old NFU did. Now the
supporters of the NFU are worried about their
future and seeking radical change, change
that has also brought bitterness within the
organization.
There are other ironies too. Listening to the
debate within the National Farmers Union
one might think he was overhearing the
constitutional debate all over again, only
backwards. The power base of the NFU is in
the West. The status quo lives in Saskatche-
wan and Alberta and Manitoba, and to some
extent in the Maritimes. The Ontario wing
feels it must have more regional control if it
is to have a future. Decisions cannot be made
in far off Saskatchewan. Ontario's money
must stay in Ontario, not be sent to the
headquarters in the West.
The leadership of the NFU from the West
and Marit.mes however argues that regional-
- ization would weaken the national character
of the organization and lead to its ultimate
dissolution as a national body.
I wonder if anybody notices how similar the
arguments are to the long acrimonious
snipings we heard all last winter only this
time the arguments of the eastern federalists
are coming from the mouths of the
westerners and the words of the western
regionalists come from central Ontario.
The moral, I guess, is that when you're too
close to the history being made you lose
perspective. Only in studying history in the
long term do you see the cycles and recurring
patterns. Just as every year we work the
fields and start over with a new crop so do
ideas and crises and arguments get recycled.
Today the NFU faces the problems of the
Federation a decade ago and who knows, the
Federation may face the dangers of the NFU.
The West today feels left out but in years to
come it may have the power and Ontario will
feel left out. In the meantime, you can't do
much about it so don't panic.
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THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1981 PG. 23