Farmers Forum: In the past four years we’ve seen the start of the landowners association, one voice, the unified voice and now the grassroots movement. Let’s go back four years. How did the Lanark Landowners Association get started?

John Vanderspank: Scott Reid (Conservative MP for Lanark-Lennox-Addington) asked Randy Hillier to put together an ag committee. We got meeting together once a month. And we began to realize the biggest issue was property rights. Within three weeks we had the Lanark Landowners Association running.

FF: You were a wild bunch, setting up roadblocks, dropping hay in front of the doors of government buildings to prevent anyone from getting in, selling so-called "illegal beef," and burning effigies of politicians. What did you accomplish?

Vanderspank: I think we made a name for ourselves. We wouldn’t back down. We made some promises and we kept them. The real thing we were after was to highlight that everything was getting dumped on the rural people and we think we managed to do that. We also woke up the rural people who didn’t know that all this stuff was going on. Regulations were coming into the country and rural Ontario was getting shut down. We had the sawmills get shut down. The local abattoirs were getting shut down. We had to enlighten people that this was happening. Eventually, it was going to hurt the urban people. That’s what we tried to highlight.

FF: Did you ever feel you took too many risks?

Vanderspank:Every step seemed to be going too far. The first time we closed the MNR office in Kemptville we were shitting bricks all the way because we didn’t know if we’d have support. The second time was even worse. The cops were even wilder about it. Of course, the first time we closed the 401 (highway) around London the cops were pretty rough. The first highway we closed was on Highway 29 at Pakenham. The cops were going to do something to Randy but about 40 of us swarmed up behind him and they backed off. When they saw we were going ahead with our event the cops were always great to work with.

FF: You’ve said before that the LLA lost focus and fell apart. What happened?

Vanderspank: In summer of 2005, Randy (Hillier) took three months off and that was the death knell of the Lanark Landowners. The Lanark Landowners were broke and we had to start making headlines to try to get money in memberships and T-shirt sales. That was Randy’s source of income.

FF: You mean demonstrations were held for the purpose of making money?

Vanderspank: That too, ya. That was very successful until we started forming other groups. We sold memberships at every demonstration. But when we helped form new groups, they got the membership fees.

FF: You were voted out of the LLA in the fall of 2005?

Vanderspank: It was building up. There was some stuff I didn’t want to do because it had nothing to do with property rights. Then there was an article in the press that said something to the effect that Randy was the mouthpiece and I did all the work. I was kicked out. Merle Bowes (LLA executive member) later apologized.

FF: Over the same period of time and independently of the landowners movement One Voice got started. How?

Vanderspank: They were a bunch of corn producers around Port Perry. They just wanted to get all the commodity groups and supply management groups together. Then Ron Bonnet and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) kind of took it over and it fell apart. So they put the unified voice together and it was the same people and so it was done before it ever got started. It never got off the ground. I was invited to the first meeting of both groups as a landowner representative but was not allowed to sit on the committees.

FF: Then the grassroots movement began?

Vanderspank: That’s right. The grassroots got started in January of 2006 to highlight low commodity prices. There was Bruce Pearce, John Doner, Doyle Patterson, John Hillcroft, Joe Hickson. And Dwight Foster was called in from the east. Dwight called me to help them organize their rallies.

FF: How many are you now?

Vanderspank: In that core group there are about 20 to 30 guys. But there are about 12 of us that are really active. There were very few rallies where we weren’t able to get 200 people in short notice. We got 7,500 in Ottawa on April 5 (2006).

FF: How are you different politically from the Lanark Landowners Association?

Vanderspank: First off, we are all legitimate businessmen. We’re all farmers. There is not one of us who is not a farmer and a fairly large farmer. We have a vested interest in what we are doing. We’re taken a little more seriously. Most of us have worked with government in the past. Maybe, we’re not as radical. Leona (Ontario Agricultural Minister Dombrowsky) will talk to me now. The deputy minister will talk to me. I had a couple beers with Leona at the OFA convention.

FF: The grassroots movement kicked in to high gear quickly. You closed down food terminals across the province last year and paraded in front of the Prime Minister’s house. Then you handed out ice cream and cheese on Parliament Hill on Canada Day. These ideas have never been done before in Canada by farmers. Was it worthwhile?

Vanderspank: Definitely. Government knows we can do stuff. If we had stuck to our guns a few more days (in closing down an Ottawa food terminal) we would have gotten what we wanted (a risk management program). We got a meeting with Chuck Strahl’s chief of staff on Easter weekend. You don’t get that unless someone high up is screaming, ‘fix this.’ But then the government went to sleep after that?

FF: And the province is listening?

Vanderspank: When (OFA president) Geri Kamenz went to Leona and said let’s go for a risk management program, she said she’d work on it but that ‘I’m still worried I’ll get kicked in the ass by the grassroots.’ Geri said ‘if you use the right numbers they’ll be with you.’

FF: So, you are getting support from traditional farm lobby groups?

Vanderspank: From the OFA, Yes. Geri’s behind us. That’s huge. Ron Bonnet wasn’t. Geri’s done more for us in the last three months than Ron Bonnet has done in four years. I want that printed. Geri’s willing to stand side-by-side with the producers. He’s hurting just like we are. Don Mills, of The National Farmers Union, has always been with us too."

FF: What’s the next step for the grassroots movement?

Vanderspank: The grassroots have told the (Ontario) Liberals that if they want any kind of support they better have an RMP (risk management program) in place before spring crop. We’re not going into the election on promises.

FF: The grassroots is now pressing the corn, soybeans and wheat groups to press for an independent audit of Agricorp. Why would you get resistance from board leaders on that?

Vanderspank: You’ve got personalities. You’ve got farmers who want to impress their neighbours. A lot of these guys, when they get there (board level), are afraid they won’t get the barbeque with the Leonas or the McGuintys. There’s a lot of that. We find a lot of these guys, when they get on the board, lose their nerve. They’re too politically correct. They don’t want to do this or do that. They say, ‘It’ll hurt the restaurant guy or the hotel guy. It just isn’t right. The commuters will turn against us.’ But the teachers don’t worry about it (when they go on strike). The bus drivers don’t worry about it.