This is where ALL the mayors get together not just to express their needs and wants for their town or municipality, but also to work together to improve the MRC or county for the collective good. This is where the residents feel closer to their local chosen government leaders. This is where the “rubber hits the road” or “the boots hit the ground.”
Long before Canada became a country, the British Army was in charge of protecting us from invasion, which happened seven times, but they relied heavily on the local militia groups that existed in most counties. The war of 1812 would have been lost to the USA only for a huge militia presence larger than the army at the time. The militia was called on several times to help quash skirmishes in different areas of the country. The members of the militia were the early version of CSIS or the CIA because they were in every local area with “an ear to the ground” to know about future trouble spots before problems occurred.
Even after militias were replaced by various police forces and armies, local concerned citizens could quickly be assembled, as happened during a robbery at a local feed mill. A few wannabe robbers tried to blow the safe and within minutes the mill was surrounded by heavily-armed citizens. The robbers hid in the highest point of the elevator and waited to surrender gladly to the police when they arrived later.
Or, when a bus load of former FLQ members was persuaded by a group of mayors and QPP reps to turn the bus around before they entered the Pontiac. Many of our residents of the county today had ancestors who served in the militias of old.
Because our mayors come from all walks of life and include farmers, managers, shop keepers, and every other profession and job in our county, they are concerned about our systems of education, our health services such as hospitals, CLSCs, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, mental health, and drug-alcohol abuse. They are concerned about our roads, water, garbage, business development, reliability of hydro, tourism and recreation, protection of our farmland, safe food for all our residents and maintaining close ties with whatever governments are in power. They are in charge of our policing and crime control. They make sure that we are prepared for any and every kind of disaster such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and how to deal with injuries from plane crashes.
When there is an expensive county project on the radar that could have lasting health risks, both the MRC and the mayors will call local community information meetings with time for questions before making a serious and expensive decision. They are our neighbours who we know and talk to regularly. Both living in and governing sparsely populated rural areas has special challenges not encountered in cities. Living in a vibrant rural community where sports, music, thousands of neighbours and friends that care how you and your family are, a doctor that knows the names of your kids and your parents, and where church suppers are better than most city restaurants serve. Those things are sometimes hard to explain to a future doctor, nurse or teacher.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain to a government official whose hospital and doctor is only a block away, that it’s hard for the elderly to drive 100 km to a hospital or the same for a doctor’s appointment. It takes some explaining to tell a new teacher who asks, “is there anything to do out here”, that you have to choose between which of the four invitations you will attend this weekend, although maybe you can do two. It’s not hard to understand that the Society of Rural Physicians was started in Pontiac County, to bring attention to the fact that rural doctors have special needs and tasks that city doctors just refer to the specialist down the hall. Any farmer will tell you that the birth of any animal, or human, can not exactly be predicted. Driving your wife to a hospital seventy-five kms away after her water breaks, because the local obstetrics unit is closed, is not a fun trip. Waiting for days to get a broken bone set and a cast put on, because we need more nurses, is NOT acceptable.
The next time that you get the chance to talk to any of your MRC mayors or representatives, tell them what you really want.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
