The Rural Voice, 1999-12, Page 26A TIME FOR
REFLECTION
Murray Gaunt looks
back over a career
of serving
agriculture
By Keit Bvul..
Mull dy Gaunt remains, to the
end of his career. a example
of a victory of substance
over style.
As he prepares to retire from his
position of farm director of CKNX
Radio at the end of December. Gaunt
goes out on a w inning note. recently
winning the Tom Leach Gold Award
from the Canadian Farm Writer's
Federation for a story on the first
robotic milking machine in North
America. Yet though he has done so
many things well. Gaunt has never
been tlashy. On his television show
The Family Farmer, he wore
comfortable sweaters, not suits. On
radio. he doesn't have the mellow
voice of. say, a CBC announcer.
When he was MPP for Huron -Bruce
for 18 years he was known for his
hard work on behalf of his
constituents more than for
flamboyant speeches in the
Legislature that would draw the
admiring attention of the media.
Throughout his lifetime he has
shown that dedication to his rural
neighbours and their way of life has
won him respect. When the Royal
Winter Fair held its media brunch at
the opening of this year's Royal,
22 THE RURAL VOICE
organizers asked him to speak about
his memories of the Royal. He has.
he estimates, attended all but about
two Royals in the past 50 years. In
1955 he won the Queen's Guineas,
the height of accomplishment for a 4-
H beef club member.
His father. Andrew Gaunt was a
shorthorn cattle breeder at St. Helens
near Lucknow and he became active
in 4-H from age 12. He attended
Ontario Agricultural College,
graduating in 1955, and returned to
operate a broiler turkey operation. In
1959 he became CKNX assistant
farm director, doing both television
and radio. In 1962 he was recruited
by the Liberal party to run in a by-
election. He won the seat and grew
more and more popular with his
constituents in each subsequent
election until he retired in 1981 after
being both his party's environmental
and agricultural critics.
He was soon back in the studio
again, after serving on the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture's special
task force on financial difficulties
faced by farmers and on the
committee looking into a single -desk
selling agency for the beef industry.
All these activities have given
Gaunt a rare perspective on the
agricultural scene, as a farmer. as a
media observer, as a participant in
the politics of the industry, and in
agriculture's battle to be heard in the
halls of provincial power.
Over the years he Lias seen many
farming cycles come and go. "I can
remember the time through 1966-67
when farm prices were in the
dumpster. That really fostered setting
up the Challenge of Abundance
report with people like Gordon Hill,
and Malcolm
John Phillips
Davidson."
The cycle hit another bottom in
1973-74 and there was the
crisis in 1982-83 created by
the high interest rates of the time.
More bad times came around in the
late '80s and again in the early '90s.
"The fact of the matter is that
farming has its cycles: periods of
high prices which generate more
production. The added production
drives down the price. The system is
purged of that production and the
price goes back up. One of the things
that has always amazed me — I've
seen this unfold year after year — is
that farmers tend to forget that there
are cycles and they become overly