Hansard Issue: L108B

Session: 38:2
Date: Oct 17, 2006

http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/38-2/l108b.htm

Mr. Runciman: They've been told. They've been told when to stand up, when to sit down, when to speak -- and when they're told to speak, they're given a script to abide by -- and told to shut up, and they shut up. I've said this before: I think it's an indication that they've essentially written off, for the most part, small-town rural seats in Ontario. They're focusing on Toronto; they're focusing on the urban areas to maintain government. We've seen that in their budget, we've seen that in so many policies that they brought forward as a government, we see it in the makeup of their cabinet. When about 50% of the provincial cabinet is Toronto-based members of the Legislature, that speaks volumes about this government's priority, and it is not small-town rural Ontario. We saw it with their efforts to put a stop to farmers' markets in this province.

Mr. Yakabuski: Shut down the church suppers.

Mr. Runciman: Shut down church suppers and bake sales. That's the sort of thing that is the history, the heritage of rural small-town Ontario, and this government, until the opposition -- and I'll give Jamie Wallace, who is the Queen's Park bureau chief for Osprey news -- we raised this issue in this Legislature about farmers' markets, bake sales and church dinners, and the media in the gallery by and large ignored it, except for Jamie Wallace, who looked into the story and, through Osprey, raised the concern, raised the red flag. Then the rest of the media, not just at Queen's Park but across the province, got involved. The government reacted, as we've seen them do with this seat belt legislation, where they've reacted.

This is the sort of thing where, as I said, it's an indication of, they react to the issue of the day, but in terms of long-lasting and deep-rooted concerns with respect to rural Ontario, they've continued to ignore them because they're not getting the press attention, they're not getting the media attention, they're not impacting on their polling in Toronto, the 905 belt and in urban Ontario. They have made, I believe, a calculated decision with respect to so many of their initiatives.