The Rural Voice, 1983-12, Page 10Malcolm Davidson was a key member of the provincial committee appointed in the late 1960's to investigate
farm income, the committee's findings were published in a 193 -page report called "The Challenge of Abun-
dance". Serving on that committee, from left: J.E. O'Meara, executive secretary; Thomas Robson, Leam-
ington; Gordon Hill, Varna; John Phillips, Farm and Country; Everett Biggs, chairman and deputy minister of
agriculture; Edith Macintosh, consumers' representative; Malcolm Davidson, Brucefield; Dr. Murray
MacGregor, director of research and OAC professor and Rodger Schwass, project management and liaison.
the fields or barns, he would stay up half
the night, studying economists like John
Kenneth Galbraith, or his aunt, Margot
Naylor, noting Important ideas on the
book's front page. He also attended
whatever seminars and meetings he could
cram into his schedule.
"He used to say if he could get one idea
that would be useful to him, then his day
was well paid for," Hill recalls.
But Davidson was also a humanist,
caring intensely not only for his own
family, but for his fellow man. Another
friend, Eric Alderson, of McLeod Hybrid
Swine, wrote that Davidson had a firm
conviction that he should devote a
substantial portion of his life to the
betterment of the human race.
That commitment was turned into
action In the late 1960's when there was a
great deal of farm unrest in the province.
Ontario Agriculture Minister William
Stewart called a conference on farm
incomes at Vineland. As a result, largely
because of a motion made by Davidson
and Hill, then picked up by the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture, Stewart agreed
to appoint a committee to study solutions
to the province's poor farm Incomes. Hill
and Davidson ended up on the committee
- "Well, some people said Mr. Stewart
appointed a number of his critics to shut
them up for awhile," says Hill with a grin.
Two years, and countless meetings later,
the committee's findings were published
in a 193 -page report called "The Challenge
of Abundance."
One of the main recommendations was
that Ontario farmers needed a unified
voice, a general farm organization which
would be financed by a levy placed on all
farm produce.
In 1969, Davidson chaired the G.F.O.
(General Farm Organization) committee,
campaigning passionately and tirelessly
for the organization. William Stewart said
he'd agree to the plan if two-thirds of On-
tario farmers approved the G.F.O. idea in a
province -wide referendum. O.F.A. said it
would dissolve its organization and turn
everything over to the G.F.O. However,
less than 50 per cent of the province's
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE, DECEMBER 1983
farmers said yes to the idea -which, Jane
recalls, left her husband "very low", for a
bit. "Then he recovered -he just went on to
the next thing and found comfort in some
new venture," she adds.
And the one new venture which at-
tracted Davidson, was the campaign that
lead to the re -organization of the O.F.A.
and climaxed with the election of Gordon
Hill to the O.F.A. presidency.
Hill believes that one of the key phrases
that helped him win the campaign was
one jotted down on a scrap of paper by
Davidson during the general meeting.
"It was that we were going to overhaul
the organization from the grass to the
staff to the brass, And that was just a
tricky, little phrase that...well, It was
typical of the things that Malcolm did."
When Davidson and Hill first met, they
had seemed unlikely friends. Davidson
was a "rugged free enterpriser" and Hill
believed free enterprise really hadn't
worked for agriculture.
"We had lots of arguments. I suppose I
mellowed a bit, he changed a little bit and