Ontario History

Part 1 - to 1919
The roots of the farmers’ movement: struggling to organize in Ontario

The history of farm organizations in Ontario dates back at least to the year 1800. The first groups formed were agricultural societies dedicated to the improvement of farming practices. These societies held regular meetings where they discussed field and animal husbandry and the improvement of farm implements. They also began sponsoring annual agricultural fairs which eventually became a permanent institution in Ontario and throughout Canada. The agricultural societies were the main form of farm organization until about the 1850s when Farmers’ Clubs began springing up throughout Ontario. Farmers’ Clubs performed the same function as the agricultural societies but many went a step further and began discussing government policy as it related to agriculture and acting as pressure groups to get better treatment for rural Canada. Many of the Farmers’ Clubs also put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of farming as a vocation and helped to develop a greater class consciousness among their members.

One result of increasing class consciousness among farmers was that by the 1870s the Farmers’ Clubs, though they continued to exist, were no longer meeting the needs of the day. Farmers began seeing the need for a strong economic and educational organization to fight for a better deal in the marketplace and from governments. This led to the growth of the Patrons of Husbandry or Grange as it was more commonly known. The Grange had been founded in the United States in 1867 and the first Canadian branch was established in London, Ontario in 1874. The Grange grew rapidly and by 1879 there were 766 locals in Canada (650 in Ontario) and 31,000 members.

The Grange can take some credit for the creation of Ontario Hydro

The Grange performed two main functions for farmers; it engaged in commercial activities in an attempt to by-pass middlemen and it acted as a political pressure group to get a better deal for farmers from governments. The political platform of the Grange called for lower tariffs and fewer government subsidies to industries. It also campaigned for public ownership of electric power and regulation of railways. The Grange can take some credit for the later creation of Ontario Hydro and the appointment of a Railway Commission by the Laurier government. It also campaigned for and got rural mail delivery. The Grange also attempted to eliminate sexual distinctions within its own organization and declared that one of its aims was “to inculcate a proper appreciation of the abilities and sphere of women”. The Grange was more active in the commercial than in the political sphere. Many local Granges established co-ops for the processing and selling of agricultural products. Grangers also formed companies to supply products and services to farmers.

Some of their larger concerns included:

The Grange Wholesale Supply Company which dealt in farm implements, household goods and tools.
A fire insurance company with headquarters near Owen Sound.
The Ontario People’s Salt Manufacturing Company which fought the salt combine and for a time brought the price down from $1.00 to $0.60 per barrel.
A life insurance company and a trust and loan society.

Though some of the commercial ventures helped farmers for a time it was these same ventures which eventually led to the degeneration of the Grange. The companies were not controlled by the rank-and-file and sometimes competed with each other and often resorted to dishonest business practices. The salt company eventually joined the salt combine itself and the life insurance company sold out to a firm from Massachusetts. The Grange as a whole became discredited when a few leading Grangers became promoters of the Temperance Colonization Society for attracting settlers to the Northwest. The Society obtained about 200,000 acres of land near the present city of Saskatoon. The Society lost thousands of dollars which had been invested by rank-and-file Grangers though the Grange was never directly involved as an organization. The whole affair caused numerous lawsuits and much bitterness.

During the 1890s the Grange was eclipsed by a new, more explicitly political organization

During the 1890s the Grange, though it remained an organization of some influence, was eclipsed for a time by a new more explicitly political organization known as the Patrons of Industry. The Patrons, also American in origin, were founded in Canada at Sarnia in 1890. They had soon spread throughout Ontario and into some other provinces and attracted many former adherents of the Grange largely because they appealed to the political frustrations of farmers. C. A. Mallory, Grand Master of the Patrons, declared that they aimed at “breaking the combines and trusts that were robbing the farmers of the country.”

The Patrons, who co-operated with urban Labour to some extent, went directly into electoral politics with the aim of achieving the “balance of power” in the provincial assembly and then forcing one of the old parties to make concession to the farmers. The Patrons elected 17 members to the Ontario Legislative Assembly in 1895 and one to the House of Commons in 1896, though at least some of them were also backed by the Liberal Party. Many Patrons were, in fact, merely “Liberals in a hurry” and the group was soon bitterly split on whether or not to co-operate with the Liberal Party. This split and the fact that they achieved few results for the farmers led to the rapid decline of the Patrons and in the provincial election of 1898 only one members was returned. Buy 1900 they were virtually extinct as an organization. The Patrons of Industry had, however, accomplished at least one thing; they had helped to inculcate in many farmers a desire for a more independent role in politics.

There should be an organization ready to bring its influence to bear to secure and promote the interests of farmers

After 1900 it became apparent that a new departure was necessary in the development of farm organizations in Ontario. The Patrons were dead and the Grange was in steady decline. During the past 30 years farmers had tried both commercial organizations and direct political action; neither had solved their problems though small gains had been achieved. J. J. Morrison and a number of other farmers decided to form an organization which would be political but not partisan. They formed the Farmers’ Association in the autumn of 1902. The Association’s declaration of purpose stated: “That, while deeming it inadvisable to establish a political party, we believe it is for the welfare of the country that there should be an organization ready to bring its influence to bear to secure and promote the interests of the farmer in matters of legislation and otherwise.” The Association joined with the Grange and a number of commodity groups including the Fruit Growers’ Association to pressure for reduced freight rates and more regulation of railways. They gained some modest concessions on both issues. The Association became very active as an educational body and the Grange, feeling the competition, began to put more emphasis on education and less on commercial activities. As the two organizations were performing essentially the same functions they united under the name of the Dominion Grange in 1907. The years to follow were extremely productive in increasing the strength of organized farmers in Ontario and throughout Canada. The Dominion Grange was growing to the point where the Ontario government began to finance Farmers’ Clubs as an alternative. Members of farmers’ clubs could discuss agricultural technique but were not allowed to discuss broad political questions or formulate alternatives to government agricultural policy.

The year 1909 was the beginning of countrywide co-operation among organized farmers. The annual meeting of the Dominion Grange was addressed by E. A. Partridge of Saskatchewan and D. W. McCuaig and Roderick McKenzie of Manitoba who proposed united action by organized farmers in all provinces. This bore fruit the following year when the annual meeting of the SGGA at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, was also attended by delegates from Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. The meeting formed the Canadian Council of Agriculture with D. W. McCuaig of Manitoba as President and E. C. Drury of Ontario as Secretary.

The Council acted as a co-ordinating body of the provincial groups and was soon directing national action on a massive scale. In December, 1910, the Dominion Grange initiated a mass lobby in Ottawa to demand a more favourable tariff structure for farmers. The Council of Agriculture co-ordinated the action throughout the country and on December 16 a delegation of 1000 farmers from Ontario, the Maritimes and the West marched to Parliament Hill and were received in the House of Commons chamber by the Laurier Cabinet. It was this kind of massive pressure which was instrumental in persuading the Laurier government to negotiate a limited reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1911. This treaty led to the defeat of Laurier’s government in the 1911 election when all the corporate interests of the country deserted the Liberals and rallied around the Conservatives in an effort to protect their varied interests. The defeat of the reciprocity treaty was looked upon as a blow to agriculture throughout Canada. It was looked upon by Liberal leaders as evidence that they should never annoy the business interests. Henceforth, more and more farmers began to lose hope that they could work through either of the traditional parties.

A meeting of 300 at the Toronto Labour Temple founds two organizations - The United Farmers of Ontario and the United Farmers’ Co-operative Company

In Ontario an immediate result of the defeat of 1911 was a demoralization among farmers. The Dominion Grange entered its final period of decline and it became obvious to the more far-sighted farmers that a new formation was necessary. In the late fall of 1913 W. C. Good, Col. J. Z. Frazer, J. U. Morrison and E. C. Drury met in Toronto and began laying plans for a new organization. They began contacting Grangers, Live Stock Associations, Co-op Fruit Associations and other groups who might be interested in united action. Morrison also conceived a plan to “steal the clubs” by contacting frustrated members of the Farmers’ Clubs who wished to assert their independence from the provincial government. The result of these preparations was a provincial conference attended by about 300 people held at the Labour Temple, Toronto in March, 1914. This conference founded two organizations - the United Farmers’ of Ontario (UFO) and the United Farmers’ Co-operative Company (UFCC).

The decision to form two separate organizations - one for educational and agitational purposes and the other for commercial activities, was a wise one and an indication that the founders of the UFO and UFCC had learned from the mistakes of the past. They recognized that an organization designed to stand up for the interests of all farmers and not just commodity groups must of necessity engage in controversial and often prolonged struggles — activities for which co-operatives were unsuited. In the words of Melville H. Staples, Educational Secretary of the UFO, “It is evident that if each of these organizations is to function properly, it must be kept separate and distinct from the other.” For the most part this separation was successful in keeping the UFO free from the disadvantages of commercial entanglements though there was not complete separation because of overlapping membership on the two Boards of Directors and this was to cause considerable trouble in later years.

The UFO got off to a slow start and was dependent upon financial assistance from farm groups in the West for the first year but then began to grow rapidly and by 1917 had 350 clubs and 12,000 members. In 1916 the UFO had affiliated to the Canadian Council of Agriculture and sections of the UFO program were incorporated into the Farmers’ Platform adopted by the Council in that year. These sections included the nationalization of railways, a more progressive system of taxation and legislation more favourable to the establishment of co-operatives. In 1917 the UFO supporters formed the Farmers’ Publishing Company and bought out The Weekly Sun, a pro-farmer newspaper which was renamed The Farmers’ Sun and became the journalistic organ of the UFO. In the same year the United Farm Women of Ontario (UFWO) was founded and within two years had more than 2,000 members. Later the United Farm Young Peoples’ Organization (UFYPO) was established. UFO supporters were determined to involve the entire family in the struggle for a better quality of life in rural communities.

The bungled war effort results in phenomenal growth for the UFO in 1918-19

The UFO experienced a phenomenal growth in 1918 and the following year due to the mishandling of the war effort by the federal government and post-war depression. In 1917 the leaders of the Council of Agriculture had made a nefarious deal with the federal government whereby T. A. Crerar would become Minister of Agriculture and the farm leaders would support military conscription of manpower on the understanding that farmers’ sons would be exempt from conscription on the grounds that the war effort required higher agricultural production. In the spring of 1918 the federal government pulled a double-cross and began conscripting farmers’ sons immediately prior to spring seeding. The Council and the UFO directors made a mild protest but J. J. Morrison took things out of their hands and proceeded to organize a massive protest which became so popular that the directors had to go along with it. On May 14 about 3,000 Ontario farmers were joined by 3,000 more from Quebec and several hundred from Alberta in the largest and most militant march on Ottawa by organized farmers up to that time. They were treated extremely rudely by government officials and this further enraged them. This protest was followed by a special UFO convention of 4,000 in Toronto in June which was addressed by farm leaders from both Ontario and Quebec. The UFO capitalized on the new spirit of indignation and by the time of the regular annual convention in December they had 1,000 clubs and 25,000 members.

During 1919 Ontario farmers and urban workers went into politics in a bigger way than ever before. The post-war depression and the failure of governments to do anything substantial about it was the main contributing factor. Unemployment was increasing in the cities and rural depopulation (one of the causes of urban unemployment) went on apace. The Farmers’ Sun commented, “The rural population has been declining for many years, being now 139,000 less than it was in 1881, and this in spite of natural increase in population, immigration and extension of settlement”. The move of the UFO towards political action was a rank-and-file movement as local associations began to contest by-elections with considerable success. As organization for political action spread from one locality to another and became ever more popular the Board of Directors found it necessary to commit the UFO as a whole to political action. Much the same sort of process was taking place among unionized workers in the cities.

We are a class and the farmers who say we are not a class are simply weak-kneed

There was not only a greater political consciousness among farmers in 1919 but a political consciousness expressed to a greater degree in class terms and a reaching out for allies in the city. The Farmers’ Sun stated, “We are a class and the farmers who say we are not a class are simply weak-kneed. We are a class and we are proud of it, for every organization is a class organization, even the ministerial association for we cannot join it.”

Agnes MacPhail, one of the most effective leaders of the UFO, declared “Three lashes of the whip - Canadian Manufacturers Association, the great transportation companies, and the banking interests - drove the farmers into organization.”

The election campaign of 1919 was fought largely on the local constituency level with little direction from the central office of the UFO. There was considerable co-operation with the Independent Labour Party of the cities. The UFO did not contest urban seats nor the ILP rural seats. In some mixed rural-urban constituencies joint candidates were nominated. In all there were 64 UFO candidates, 20 ILP and 10 Farmer-Labour candidates. According to the Farmers’ Sun, “All who work for a living belong to one side; all who live idly, or speculatorily or predatorily, belong to the other side… Agriculture and Labour are allies because they both work and live hard.” Despite this move towards co-operation all was not harmony between the two groups. Their platforms and conceptions of society were different in many ways and sometimes contradictory and this was to lead to problems later on. The UFO program included abolition of party patronage, equal educational opportunity in country and city, forest conservation, cheaper electric power, direct legislation and proportional representation. They also put a great deal of emphasis on Prohibition and “economy in government.” The first was virtually unworkable and unpopular in the cities and the latter was interpreted by many UFO supporters as necessitating opposition to the growth of the modern welfare state which was so necessary to urban and rural people alike and was an important part of the ILP platform.

Celebrating victory as their troubles are just beginning

The results of the election, held in October, were gratifying to the UFO and ILP alike. The UFO were the single largest group with 43 members to 26 Conservatives, 28 Liberals, 12 Labour and 2 Independents. The UFO and Labour groups negotiated a coalition and formed Canada’s first Farmer-Labour government. The UFO annual convention of 1919 was very much a victory celebration and the organization experience another period of phenomenal growth. By 1920 there were over 1,500 clubs and 60,000 members and farmers throughout Canada, inspired by the victory in Ontario, were organizing with great vigour for political action. Supporters of the UFO were looking forward to a period of tremendous progress for rural Ontario. Little did they realize that their troubles were just beginning.

(Part 2 - to 1952)

The experience of the UFO leads to the Ontario Farmers Union

Before the formation of the Farmer-Labour government in 1919, the United Farmers of Ontario had no political leader. They decided to call upon E. C. Drury who had been the first president of the UFO, to lead the legislative caucus and form a government. Drury proceeded to assemble a Farmer-Labour coalition cabinet and assumed the reins of office.

The farmers and workers of Ontario looked forward to a new era of social and economic progress. Their hopes were to begin shattering within a few months and come down in utter ruins in a few short years.

There immediately developed a bitter struggle over which political direction the UFO should take and how the UFO as an organization should relate to the legislative caucus and the government. Premier Drury was the leader of the forces who favoured a so-called “broadening out” strategy. They favoured the creation of a broad reform political party which would include farmers, workers and assorted individuals interested in reform.

UFO members were to discover that electing a government was no guarantee of grass roots control of government decision making.

Some of these people could be described as progressive in that they favoured closer ties with urban labour in a struggle against the big business interests. Others, including Drury, were former Liberals who favoured making common cause with the Liberal Party. The kind of reform party they had in mind would merely be a reformed version of the almost defunct provincial Liberals. UFO members were to discover that electing a government was no guarantee of grass roots control of government decision making. Drury and his supporters also tended to favour Cabinet control of the legislative caucus and caucus independence from the control of the UFO organization.

The section of the UFO which opposed Drury was led by J. J. Morrison, a believer in the “group government” theory expounded by Henry Wisewood of Alberta. These people believe that occupational groups should be represented in the legislative chamber in proportion to their percentage of the population. It was thought that the various groups could then form a “non-partisan” government and work out legislation which would be to the advantage of all sectors of the population.

The UFO discovered that the business interests did not fade away merely because a farmer-labour government was in office.

Morrison and his followers also believed that the Cabinet and the legislative caucus should be the servants of the UFO organization and not be an independent power unto themselves. This group was generally in control of the UFO board of directors and the Farmers’ Sun.

In addition to doctrinal differences, the UFO and the government disagreed on many specific government actions. The Department of Agriculture continued to give fervent support to the Farmers’ Clubs and Women’s Institute which were virtually controlled by the civil service and generally held back social progress. When they offered financial assistance under the same conditions to the United Farm Women of Ontario it was refused.

According to the women’s president, “We want to maintain our independence, and if necessary, dictate to the government.” The UFO and the government also disagreed on how money should be expended. For instance, in the case of highways, the farmers preferred that money be spent on market roads whereas the government favoured tourist roads.

The UFO discovered that the business interests did not fade away merely because Farmer-Labour government was in office.

They discovered, in fact, that though the government was in “office”, it was not in “power” in any meaningful sense.

A constant battle was carried on throughout the four year term of the Drury government and virtually wrecked the UFO as an effective organization. Neither side was entirely blameless and neither side had adequate solutions for the problems besetting farmers and workers.

Drury was far too much of a compromiser and in many ways never left his “Liberal home” in a spiritual and intellectual sense. A few of the MPPs and Cabinet Ministers were rank opportunists with no sense of loyalty to anyone but themselves. They joined the band wagon during the UFO upsurge of 1919 and “rode to glory” on the backs of the farmers.
One boasted that he carried in his pocket written offers of a nomination from both the UFO and Liberals and took a week to decide which one to accept. Two notorious examples were F. C. Biggs and Peter Smith, both of whom were Cabinet Ministers. Biggs became wealthy out of business deals and Smith, who was Provincial Treasurer, was eventually tried in the courts fo gross corruption.

The Morrison wing of the UFO was on much solider ground in that they did not believe in power for its own sake and they believed that the organization should run the government rather than vice versa. However, their theory of group government was also inadequate to meet the problems of the times.

They had little concept of the need for fundamental economic and social change and believed that the economic system was basically sound and could serve the interests of the people if only governments were more honest and more democratic. They did not see that dishonest and undemocratic government resulted from the operation of the system itself.

On the federal level, the battles which were fought out in the UFO were fought throughout the country within the National Progressive Party. Thomas Crerar and his “Liberals in a hurry” soon got the upper hand and the Progressives were on the road to ruin.

By 1923 the farm political movement was in deep trouble both provincially and federally.

This was reflected when the Drury government went down to crushing defeat in the Ontario election of 1923.

In the same year the UFO convention voted to take the organization out of politics though the members were left free to form a separate political party if they chose to do so. In 1924 a provincial section of the Progressives was founded but they never became a powerful force. In 1925 the UFO convention officially voted the organization back into politics and for a time there were two agrarian political parties, the Progressives and the UFO, both federally and provincially, in Ontario politics.

By 1925 most Ontario farmers were disillusioned with politics.

By now, most farmers were disillusioned with politics and after 1925 there were only two UFO MPPs left, Agnes MacPhail and J. W. King. Miss MacPhail sat with the Ginger Group of MPPs led by J. S. Woodsworth and was later instrumental in founding the CCF. By 1929 the UFO was a dead force in provincial politics.

E. C. Drury had, in 1927, returned to the Liberal Party. Most other UFO leaders and rank and file members had no desire to attempt a repeat of the unhappy experience in government.

The Ontario farmers’ movement as a whole was generally on the decline in the late 1920s and early 1930s. There was some important educational work carried on with considerable emphasis on study groups and evening classes for farmers. However, by this time the more conservative elements within the UFO Co-operative Company were becoming more influential and they were more interested in their commercial venture than in fighting for a better deal for farmers as a whole.

From 1925 the Farmers’ Sun was financed by the Co-operative Company and became a propaganda organ for the co-ops rather than an educational journal on agricultural policy in the broader sense. The paper began to take a reactionary view on many social issues and was often virulently anti-labour, thus playing into the hands of the business interests who wished to keep workers and farmers divided.

Apathy within the UFO had become general by 1930 and by 1931 J. J. Morrison was complaining of the dominance of the Co-op.

“A decline of virility and aggressive activity by the UFO is resulting in a tendency to lean on the United Farmers’ Co-operative Company and permit it to dictate policy for both the Farmer’s Sun and the UFO, a function that was not intended in the creation of the co-operative company,” he said.

The UFO underwent a moderate upsurge after an emergency convention was called to deal with the Depression and the lack of a strong farm voice in 1931. The following year 2,000 Ontario farmers were joined by the same number from Quebec in a new lobby at Ottawa during the Empire Trade Conference. They attempted, but without success, to get better trading arrangements for agriculture. Nonetheless, the demonstration served notice on the government that there was still life in the farm movement and their spirit had not been crushed by the Depression.

After the doldrums of domination by the co-op, a divisive anti-labour paper decline and a short upsurge came a brief flirtation with the CCF.

In 1932, the UFO also voted to affiliate to the newly emerging CCF though their relationship was to last only until 1934. As a pressure group the UFO regained sufficient strength that they forced a few concessions from the government of the day. One such concession was the Mortgagers’ and Purchasers’ Relief Act which stayed proceedings against debtors until authorized by a special tribunal.

Another activity of some UFO support during these years was the formation of the New Canada Movement — an agrarian youth movement which died out in a few years. However, many of the youth active in the New Canada Movement later held leadership positions in various farm organizations.

From 1935 the UFO was steadily declining towards extinction as an organization. In that year the Canadian Chamber of Agriculture (later the Canadian Federation of Agriculture) was formed to replace the Canadian Council of Agriculture which had collapsed in the early 1930's.

Also in 1935 a half dozen farm groups, including the UFO, formed the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

Its first president was H. H. Hannam of the UFO. The OFA was composed mainly of commercial organizations and the UFO was the educational wing. As such the UFO continued to perform a valuable function for a few years but the commercial groups gradually usurped the educational field as well and by 1943 the UFO was dead.

The OFA became ever more conservative and it appeared to many that militancy among farmers was a phenomenon of the past. The same was true throughout Canada during the mid 1940s. Fortunately it was only a temporary lull. A militant and progressive farm movement was to rise again, in Ontario and throughout Canada.

New Beginnings: Two tries for a farmer’s union finally result in the Ontario Farmers Union.

In the years immediately after World War II, far-sighted farmers in different parts of Ontario began to make pioneering efforts towards the resurrection of a meaningful farm movement. The Canadian Farmers’ Union was founded in Simcoe County in 1946 and soon had several locals in the Midland area. Percy Crawford was its first president. This was the first attempt since the founding of the Farmers’ Union of Canada in 1922 to build a solid national union on a direct membership basis.

It functioned only until 1949 but nonetheless performed valuable spadework for later organizational efforts.

Another pioneering effort of this kind was the Ontario Farmers Union which was formed in the Napanee area of Eastern Ontario in 1948. This organization attained a membership of 1,800 at its peak and functioned for about 18 months.

Its members fought bravely against tremendous odds. The business interests, assisted by the class collaborators in the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, moved in to crush the new organization and resorted to the red baiting and slander typical of such campaigns.

The organizational work which was eventually to pay off in a big way began in the community of Maxwell, Grey County, during the fall of 1952. It was appropriate that it should begin in Gray County which had been a stronghold of the Grangers and later the UFO and had produced many of the outstanding leaders in the history of the Ontario farm movement.

Declining farm prices, indifferent governments and the absence of an effective farm voice convinced a small group of farmers, including Frank Mills, Dan McIntyre, Eaman McInnes and Cecil Hayes, that an organization directly controlled by its farm membership was an absolute necessity.

They began holding meetings in the surrounding localities and had soon called upon Jak Schulz and Joe Phelps to lend the assistance of the organized farmers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The farmers of Ontario responded once more to the call to do battle and a new movement was on the rise.

The result of this new awakening was the founding of the Ontario Farmers Union (OFU) at a convention attended by 300 to 400 men and women in December, 1952. The constitution of the OFU incorporated direct membership principles and the convention delegates resolved to build a strong and militant educational and agitational organization throughout the province.

Officers elected included George Sutherland, president, Harold Theaker, vice-president and Frank Gamble, secretary-treasurer.

The real struggle to make the OFU a viable organization still lay ahead but it was apparent to the more farsighted in 1952 that a new era had begun in the long struggle by the farmers of Ontario to control their own destiny.

(Part 3 - to 1967)

The Ontario Farmers Union grows in strength and militancy

The struggle to build the OFU in the years immediately following the 1952 founding convention was by no means an easy one. They were fought not only by agribusiness and their allies among politicians and the press, but also by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) which was composed of commercial and commodity organizations.

The OFA, engaged almost solely in commercial activities and virtually silent on broader problems for years, attempted to set itself up as a rival organization and scuttle the Farmers Union before it had a chance to become firmly established. Federation spokesmen followed OFU speakers from meeting to meeting and used disruptive tactics in an attempt to discourage farmers from joining the new organization.

It was this type of opposition from a body allegedly representing the interests of agriculture which was the most difficult to fight and undoubtedly helped to retard the growth of the OFU in its initial stages.

The reasons for the bitter opposition of the OFA (backed by its parent body, the CFA) are not hard to find. With agricultural prices declining throughout Canada and farmers being driven from the land in the early 1950's, more and more farmers were looking for new leadership and demanding radical changes.

The CFA and its provincial affiliates, composed of commercial organizations with vested interests of their own, were opposed to such changes and determined to fight anyone who threatened to “rock the boat.” Provincial federations across the country were run by a tightly knit hierarchy of reactionaries unwilling to change their ideas and unwilling to step aside for more farsighted leadership.

They act like men standing beside hell throwing snow balls to lower the temperature

According to Jake Schulz, “In some of the provincial federations, death seems to be the only excuse for electing a new director.” Schulz, then chairman of the Interprovincial Farm Union Council, expressed the widespread dissatisfaction with the old traditional leadership of the CFA in his valuable book Rise and Fall of Canadian Farm Organizations which was published in 1955.

Schulz is worth quoting at some length because he not only explained what had happened to the Federation, but helped to wake up the farmers of that day to the need for militant direct membership unions.

“Small wonder that an ever-increasing number of farm voices are heard, challenging the right of businessmen to speak for farmers through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

“While they sit happily on their little commercial creations, these indecisive leaders talk about the accomplishments of the past, praise the economic conditions of the present, and forget to think about the future of the farmer. They seem to be concerned with everything else except the farmers’ mounting problems. They are interested in the Canadian National Railways, Trans-Canada Airways, Canadian West India Steamship Lines, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the Bank of Canada, etc. They take directorships in all these companies and more.

The future historian who likes details will explain which public figure, gifted with a monumental capacity for the pursuit of public duty, was able to spread himself in so many diversified directions at one time.

It will be a sorry day for our co-operative leadership when the forces so nicely lulled to sleep during the years by a ‘laissez-faire bureaucracy’ wake up and find that they have been betrayed in their trust and learn who is responsible for their economic plight.

“Among the footprints in the sands of time some people leave no mark.” (P. 103)

“The strange influence of money created smug and selfish men who became dizzy with prosperity and blind to reality. Instead of helping to strengthen the existing form of producer-controlled organization, they took dominion over agriculture, and while organized civilization is drawing blood out of the unorganized farmer and his economic paleness is rapidly becoming a national epidemic, the reaction of these self-styled spokesmen for agriculture has so far been no more that a dignified clearing of their throats. Even at this time when the industry is in dire straits and western farmers’ net income in 1954 was only one-third what it was in 1951, they act like men standing beside hell, throwing snowballs to lower the temperature.” (P. 116)

A strategy designed to submerge the OFU since it could not be destroyed

In spite of the obstacles thrown in the way, the OFU made progress and by 1954 was gaining momentum under the leadership of President Albert Cormack, Vice-President Walter Millar and Women’s President Mrs. Evelyn Prosser. A series of debates between Cormack and OFA spokesmen increased the popularity of the OFU.

During this period the OFU fought hard for parity prices for farmers as did farm unions throughout the country.

They also saved their members considerable money and exposed the profiteering of the grain traders by purchasing carloads of grain directly through the Canadian Wheat Board, thereby bypassing the middlemen.

By the late 1950's the Union was firmly established to the point where some people in the OFA were beginning to talk about amalgamation of the two groups. While this was probably a sincere effort to achieve farm unity on the part of some well meaning but naive people, it was, on the part of some others, a strategy designed to submerge the OFU since it could not be destroyed.

The Ontario government played a part in this strategy by appointing an Agricultural Inquiry Committee which recommended, among other things, the OFU and OFA should merge. Gordon Hill, who had been elected OFU president in 195, was a member of the Committee.

Though Hill may have acted with the best of intentions, his membership on the Committee implicated the OFU to a considerable extent and caused much bitterness within the union. Hill declined to seek re-election at the 1960 convention and was replaced as president by Mel Tebbutt, a young Markdale farmer.

Tebbutt had to contend with pressure for amalgamation both from within and outside the union, but held firm and began laying the framework for a much more powerful organization. It was during Tebbutt’s term as president that Walter Miller, the former vice-president, was appointed full-time Director of Organization. It was also during this period that farm women became much more active under the leadership of Women’s President Mrs. Jeanne Williams.

The period beginning with the presidency of John Dolmer in 1964 and continuing until the founding of the NFU was the most militant in the history of the Ontario Farmers Union. Union members decided that presenting briefs to the governments, while useful, was not nearly enough to wake up the politicians to the farmers’ plight.

A period of mass demonstrations began with a march of 2,000 farmers to Ottawa on April 27, 1965 , where they demanded a system of adequate price supports for farm products. This was the beginning of the type of mass pressure on both the federal and Ontario governments which was to gain some concessions and at the same time build the OFU into an influential force throughout most of rural Ontario.

The largest demonstration of them all...

This initiative was followed up in 1966 by a campaign to force the Ontario government to provide assistance for farmers with emphasis on a subsidy program for industrial milk. The Ontario government as usual attempted to ignore the OFU and the Minister of Agriculture stated that he would never recommend a subsidy to milk producers.

This resulted in a meeting of about 1,000 farmers on April 5, 1966 , at Ryerson Institute in Toronto When the government refused to send representatives, the farmers marched to Queen’s Park, but still achieved no results.

By June an Oxford County dairy farmer, Wayne Smith, became so disgruntled at the deplorable situation that he took to the highway with his tractor depicting the plight of the dairy industry.

Within the day his neighbours had joined him. This first tractor demonstration was spontaneously organized by local farmers and the provincial government heard about it before OFU central office.

Soon OFU supporters were organizing tractor demonstrations throughout the province, culminating in one at Queen’s Park on July 27, 1966. The pressure was on and it was kept on until the Ontario government agreed to pay a small subsidy to milk producers.

Later they also agreed to a capital grant program for farmers. The farmer had proved that militant action could achieve some results and this acted as a spur to more action in the future and helped to build the OFU into the recognized representative of the true interests of Ontario farmers.

The largest demonstration of them all, and perhaps the largest protest march to ever assemble on Parliament Hill, was the mass march on Ottawa by 20,000 mainly Ontario and Quebec farmers on May 24, 1967.

This was an exceptionally well organized demonstration by the Ottawa March Committee which was composed of representatives from the OFU, the OFA and the UCC of Quebec. Farmers gathered from every area of Ontario and Quebec and were joined by a few from the Maritimes and the West.

“Hundreds of busses criss-crossed rural Ontario and Quebec early on the morning of May 24, collecting farmers for the massive demonstration, while many times that number of cars moved towards Ottawa from innumerable points in both provinces. Even a few planes were brought into play.” (Ontario Union Farmer, June, 1967)

Emphasis on the demand for a fair return for farmers for their labour and investment

The brief presented by the Ottawa March Committee on behalf of the demonstrators reiterated the demands made by farm organizations for decades past with emphasis on the demand for a fair return for farmers for their labour and investment and the need for an overall program to bring this about rather than hastily conceived “solutions” which did not get to the roots of the problem.

“Because they have dealt only with symptoms, these ‘solutions’ have been about as effective as giving aspirins to a man with cancer.”

The brief demanded that an independent committee, free of control by the bureaucrats in the Department of Agriculture, be established to come up with a workable agricultural policy.

Major representation on the committee would be appointed by the national farm organizations with MP’s from all parties and consumer groups also having representation. It went on to express concern about who would be appointed to the “task force” promised by the government in the throne speech of 1967. The tone of the brief indicated that the farmers had lost patience with the manipulation of the politicians.

“There are some differences in today’s presentation from those the farmers have made in the recent past. The major difference is that this time we decided not to try to take the government’s answer to our problem back to the farmers. We are sick and tired of telling our members you will do something you have promised, only to have you play political football with our needs. For their part, they are tired of having you make pawns of their farm organizations. This time, they have come to Ottawa themselves, to hear from your lips, the solution you propose to their problems.”

What the farmers and their leaders heard from the lips of Prime Minister Pearson and Agriculture Minister Greene were not solutions but more double talk and sickening platitudes.

Pearson “regretted” the language in which the farmers voiced their complaints, insisted that the government was attempting to solve farm problems and held out great hopes for the Task Force on Agriculture which was yet to be appointed.

The government attitude so frustrated farmers...

His treachery was later proven by the personnel the government appointed to the Task Force and by its Report which has since become infamous throughout Canada. Greene depicted, mainly for the benefit of the press, a glowing picture of improved net farm income. The only specific promise extracted from government leaders was that the Cabinet would meet with farm spokesmen at a later date to discuss the brief in more detail.

The government attitude so frustrated farmers that at one point UCC President Lionel Sorel threatened to stay on in Ottawa until straight answers were forthcoming. Many of the farmers left Ottawa with a clearer understanding of how the politicians regarded them as a low priority group except at election time.

After the massive march of May, 1967, it became obvious to increasing numbers of union members that much more than demonstrations would be necessary to force governments to pay heed to the interests of farmers. Paying more serious attention to the slogan “In Union There is Strength” they became more determined than ever before to build the OFU into a force powerful enough to embrace the great majority of farmers.

They also began making greater efforts to co-ordinate their activities with their brethren in other provinces and eventually integrate all provincial unions into one powerful national farm organization. The 500 delegates attending the 1967 convention agreed to have the Board of Directors proceed with plans for a fully integrated farm union.

The 1967 convention also elected Walter Miller as President and Mrs. Veronica Opsitnik Women’s President. They and the Board of Directors were to lead the union through two eventful years during which direct actions were continued against agribusiness and governments, preparations were completed for the founding of the NFU and the union fought a successful struggle against yet another attempt to destroy it by the combined forces of the Ontario government, the OFA and the corporate elite who lived off agriculture.