The LLA’s John Vanderspank said he was surprised and pleased when contacted after the election by Geri Kamenz, OFA vice-president, who has extended an olive branch in the form of an invitation to meet December 10. They will discuss how the two groups can work together to fight for farmers.

"We have to bury the hatchet," said Kamenz, often critical of the LLA’s tactics and the further fragmentation of the voice of farmers in the province.

Kamenz wants to see if the two groups can put forward a common front.

"We’re both OFA members and I know John Vanderspank well enough to know that we’re both after the same things. But I need to know what files and issues are foremost and forefront with the LLA."

Then the two groups can discuss where the OFA stands on these issues, says Kamenz, and what resources a large, farm organization like the OFA can provide and where it has to draw the line.

"At times we cannot support some of these individual initiatives because it slams the door behind us," he said.

Kamenz admits he has tempered his "in-your-face" style over the past decade as he built relationships within government and curried the respect of the farm community.

"I said at the convention that maybe Geri Kamenz has toned it down too much and now I need to crank it up a bit," Kamenz said.

Vanderspank is looking forward to working with Kamenz and believes the two groups can make politicians think again about recent cutbacks and policy decisions that are hurting the rural community.

"He (Kamenz) should be working with us," said Vanderspank. "They (the OFA) don’t have a stick. They don’t have any negotiating power. But if they used us on the outside as the stick . . . It worked with the MNR with the sawmills. They’ve backed off."

While the LLA has become infamous in eastern Ontario and has established 14 affiliate branches, this was its first move onto the provincial landscape. At the OFA November convention, Vanderspank finished a distant second in the run for OFA president but was happy with getting 20 per cent of the vote. He got 57 votes. OFA president Ron Bonnett got 257 votes.