The Rural Voice, 1992-07, Page 28From
workboots
to
pinstripes
and back
They don't come
grassroots than Tony
McQuail ...so what
was he doing at
Queen's Park?
24 THE RURAL VOICE
Tony McQuail looks much more
at home among the organically
grown apple trees of his West
Wawanosh farm than he did in the
business suit that came as part of his
job as Executive Assistant to Elmer
Buchanan, Ontario's Minister of
Agriculture and Food. Yet McQuail
spent 18 months near the top of the
hierarchy in the political side of
agriculture until stepping down April
1 to return to his country life.
It's not that Tony McQuail was
new to the world of politics, or for
that matter to a suit. As a guiding
force with the Foodlands Steering
Committee, he had taken on the
immense power of Ontario Hydro on
behalf of farmers caught in the path
of a power line from the Bruce
Nuclear Power Development, taking
part in lengthy hearings. He'd run for
Parliament three times and he ran the
successful campaign of Paul Klopp
in his upset win for the NDP in the
September 1990 election in Huron.
He'd been president of the Huron
Tony McQuail enjoys the fresh air of
Huron County after the rarified
atmosphere of Toronto.
County Federation of Agriculture and
later was awarded the Federation
award for Outstanding Contribution
to Agriculture.
Still McQuail wasn't your usual
candidate for one of the most
influential jobs in Ontario agriculture.
He'd been farming for 20 years but
farming with a difference. He and his
wife Fran had started from scratch,
buying a worn out, hilly farm near St.
Helens. They started farming with
horses in 1976 after Fran made a
study that showed profits from
farming with horse-drawn equipment
were as good or better than with
tractors and combines.
That same combination of study
leading to solutions that would be
considered offbeat by most of their
neighbours, has been a hallmark of
the couple's life. They lived in a
renovated part of the old barn on the