Townsman, 1991-11, Page 24Goodbye
neighbours
Changing economic conditions on the farm are
having profound eff; cts on life in midwestern Ontario
y Jim Fitzgerald
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The symptoms are getting too hard -
to ignore anymore: the empty stores
that dot main streets in dozens of
towns and villages throughout mid-
western Ontario; the near empty
churches on Sunday mornings in rural
areas; the rapidly declining school
population in country schools; and the
eerie silence on the concession roads
during the daytime after many of the
residents have left for off -farm jobs.
To the well-paid, comfortably
secure economists and government
bureaucrats it's called "restructuring
the basic farm economy," but to the
individual people who have lost a
farm, or a small business and watched
hopelessly as their family split up, it's
a tragedy. Yes, the cold hard statistics
show clearly what is happening to the
agriculture community, but the indi-
vidual stories demonstrate the pain
22 TOWNSMAN/NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1991