Ontario's Heartland

Yesterday Theresa and I travelled almost 1000 KM through some of the most beautiful farmland in Canada. We went over to Chesterville to a funeral and took many back roads to experience the true old time family farms. The fields were divided by ditches for drainage and were overgrown with bushes and trees which framed the well kept fields of grain and corn.

These were family units and looked to be between 80 and 100 acres. Yes there were larger farm reminding me of the blemish company owned farms with thousand acre fields ruined the landscape. These companies tear down the houses and barns and tile drain the land and use monster machinery to eke out every bushel of corn to feed pigs and cows for the world. This kind of farming used few people and the once homeland of solid farm children and families have all disappeared under this program.

Give me the family farm with modern machinery and a love of the land and you will get people who make up the heartland of Ontario. I know many of these people who came from this type of environment and you see people who respect Canada, our flag and our way of life. I sat with them yesterday and was moved by their ability to preserve the values and maintain traditions even in a simple act of burying one of their own.

As we drove to the cemetery we crossed a highway which had signs reminding everyone that this was S, D, and G territory. A regiment from Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry fought bravely in the great wars and were known as the Sand, Dust and Gravel lads and don't mix with them. We left this little town to travel back to the hectic life in the big city where we took one and a half hours to travel through traffic to cross Toronto.

Every area has its charm and faults and the place I described has more charm than faults.