"I don’t have an income or any assets," Hillier said he replied, adding that police backed off when he insisted his group would only stop if they get a meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The rural group, which now has more than 4,000 supporters, most of them paid members of six eastern Ontario local chapters, also plans to block traffic near Prescott on Highway 401 at Highway 416 on January 28.

The LLA has numerous demands, including funding for farmers to comply with the nutrient management act and a buy-out package for tobacco farmers.

Everywhere he goes, Hillier says, he’s asked if the LLA is willing to resort to violence. "I don’t want to put out a statement saying we will not be violent and I don’t want to make a statement that we will be violent. Circumstances will dictate the response."

He added that there would be something terribly wrong with Canada if it takes violence to protect property rights.

The almost two-year-old LLA, which has become one of the most vocal defenders of rural property owners in the province, expects to see exponential growth this year.

"We’ve got a whole lot of steam that I’ve never seen before," said LLA president Randy Hillier, after meeting with tobacco farmers in Tillsonburg. "The phone calls and e-mails haven’t stopped."

The LLA expects more western Canadian groups to join their ‘revolution’ — there are two western Canadian associations who endorse the landowners’ mandate — and expects to form a partnership with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. "The OFA knows this (protests) is the right thing to do," Hillier told Farmers Forum, adding, "I don’t think there is some collective mind set among them."

Looking to the future, Hillier sees tens of thousands of people protesting in Ottawa. "What will galvanize them is principle. There are a lot of disenfranchised groups. When they realize they’re fighting for the same principle, this will happen. Everyone out there has been affected but they don’t know how to express it."

He hopes that Parliament will be influenced to accept the principle that "one has a right to own, use, enjoy and earn a living from our property," he said. "And if that right is infringed upon for the common good, then the owner should be justly and timely compensated."