The Rural Voice, 2001-12, Page 45News
Eugene Whelan. speaking to the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture. is
still passionate. still controversial.
Whelan still
stirs passions
He didn't start speaking until after
10 p.m. but Eugene Whelan still
rambled on for an hour, rising to full
passion at various times, then
received a standing ovation when he
spoke to the annual. meeting of the
Bruce County Federation of
Agriculture October 26 in
Underwood.
Along the way, between the
stories and the laughter, Whelan hit
hard at some of the things he
disagrees with.
• Municipal amalgamation: "We've
lost our history," he charged. "My
township was, over 200 years old —
it no longer exists. What the heaven's
name does our history mean to us?"
"I can't believe how docile people
were," he said of the public who
accepted amalgamation with hardly a
whimper. He said he sat beside
former Ontario Municipal Affairs
Minister Al Leach at a dinner when
amalgamation was going through and
told him "If I was in good health —
this was just after I came out of the
hospital — I would have led civil
insurrection against what you did.
"What about our heritage?" he
asked. Order came down on high to
change the structure of government
in Ontario, he said. "That ain't the
way we built Canada — we built it
from the ground up. You don't build
anything from the top down.
"I wish I was younger and I'd
raise more hell!"
• On involvement: "When I entered
municipal politics we had and
election every year. And you know
when we voted, not when the weather
was good, we voted the day after
New Year's when the snow was that
deep even in Essex County and we
walked to the polls and had as high
as 93 per cent turnout. What do you
have now — 25?
"You see you've destroyed
community feelings." People in his
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DECEMBER 2001 41