In the Feb. 6 Toronto Star, MPP Randy Hillier offered a strongly worded rebuttal to comments made by University Professor Nelson Wiseman while speculating on the Ontario PC Party’s future.
Hillier reminded the professor that the stereotyping and denigrating of rural Ontario will not be tolerated.
“The professor needs to understand that it is not where you grow up but what you make of yourself that determines leadership skills. I should not have to remind him that name-calling is the lowest form of debate,” said Hillier.
In an interview with the Toronto Star printed on Jan 26, Wiseman said that political leaders from the countryside are likely to be "rural yahoos." The professor further stated that "smart people realize this."
Hillier wrote in rebuttal to the Star website. It is printed here.
A “rural yahoo” talks back
It is a rare occasion when an esteemed university political science professor demonstrates both intolerance and ignorance in a single interview.
One recently left his comfortable academic chair and waded into the swamps of political leadership. Along the way his foot found the traps his mouth had set and his mind had baited. Had he armed himself with some knowledge of history and a measure of respect for others, the swamp and the alligators may have been avoided.
During an interview with the Star, the professor expressed significant bias and a large dose of disdain for rural Ontario, commenting that political leaders from the countryside are likely to be "rural yahoos." The professor further demonstrated his ignorance in stating that "smart people realize this." Most Canadians will find these statements both repulsive and ignorant.
Objective readers with a basic knowledge of Canadian history will recognize the falseness of the professor’s statements. Canadian history is paved with a marvellous collection of rural leaders who helped build a prosperous, just society and, along the way, built the academic classrooms where generous pay cheques abound. Sir John A. Macdonald leads this list, followed closely by farm kids Sir Robert Borden, Wilfrid Laurier, prairie populist John Diefenbaker and Baie-Comeau lad Brian Mulroney.
Great rural leaders are certainly not confined to federal politics. In Ontario, the rural cast includes farmer Mitch Hepburn, Frank Miller, and Mike Harris, to name a few. Anyone looking at Canadian history through these misinformed academic eyes would have to conclude that Canadians are uneducated and have been led by, and voted for, a series of "yahoos."
Of course, many urban political leaders are sprinkled amid the cobblestones of political history, Stéphane Dion, Pierre Trudeau, Dalton McGuinty, Bob Rae, and Paul Martin, for instance. However, just as it is false to denigrate leaders because they may hail from a small town or rural area, it is equally false to elevate or diminish a person’s importance because they hail from the big city.
In October of last year, the professor characterized the Progressive Conservative party as the party of rural, small town and small-minded "Old Ontario." Apparently, the professor’s liberal mind changes with the seasons, and would now like to refashion the Progressive Conservative party with metropolitan intolerance, slicked back with academic ignorance.
I would remind the professor that Old Ontario laid the foundations, fed the masses and has a history of developing astute leaders in all levels of politics and governance.
I have watched, with great angst, the McGuinty government’s relentless assaults upon our rural economy, our rural institutions and the rural heritage of justice and culture of freedom that built this great province. The attacks on rural Ontario have been calculated and deliberate.
With great pride, I stand as an advocate for, and a citizen of, rural Ontario. Although, the current government has put the economy, culture and institutions of rural Ontario in its crosshairs, it is unacceptable for a university professor to promote this government’s harmful rural agenda.
The professor needs to understand that it is not where you grow up but what you make of yourself that determines leadership skills. And I should not have to remind him that name-calling is the lowest form of debate.
Then again, maybe I’m just a "rural yahoo."
Randy Hillier is MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.
