Huron County farmer readies For NDP leadership debate

A Huron County farmer, who is running for federal NDP leadership, is preparing for a national political debate in Montreal. CTV London’s Scott Miller reports.

It’s fair to say that Tony McQuail is the only NDP leadership hopeful spending his debate preparation hauling hay behind two horses.

“I’m trying to get enough hay out that I can leave the cattle on the winter pasture while I’m away, and they’ll have their feed, and I’ll be in Montreal trying to put forward some ideas,” said the Huron County farmer.

McQuail is one of five candidates who want to lead the federal NDP. The first official debate takes place this Thursday in Montreal, and will be held mostly in French, which is admittedly not McQuail’s strong suit.

“In Montreal, I’ll be talking un peu Francaise, a little French,” said McQuail.

McQuail’s strong suit is walking the walk. For 45 years he’s been a regenerative farmer near Lucknow, using mostly horses instead of gas powered tractors to work his land. His “Green Progressive” platform is based on four R’s: representation, regeneration, redistribution, and redesign, with a heavy focus on starting to reverse decades of environmental damage caused by “pro-growth” economic policies.

“I think we need to be talking seriously about de-growth, how we share the wealth we already have in ways that help us build our communities. And I’d like to see a program that works with nature clubs and environmental groups and pollution cleanup and municipal councils to fix the things in their neighborhood that can start regenerating what we need to do to heal the planet, for all the damage that we’ve already done,” he said.

McQuail had initially said, if elected leader he would try to merge the Green Party with the NDP, to stop vote splitting on the left. He’s since abandoned that plan, but thinks there still should only be one candidate from either party on the ballot in each riding, come the next election.

“We don’t have time to merge parties. Merging parties takes a lot of work and a lot of effort. But we do have time to do, is figure out what can we agree on, not what we disagree on,” said McQuail.

McQuail has run for the NDP seven times over the past 45 years - five federally, and twice provincially. He’s never won, and knows he’s in tough in this race, as well. Although he’s short $30,000 in required funds to stay in race, he’s directed supporters to help push Tanille Johnston, a B.C. social worker, over the fundraising threshold by Nov. 30, before restarting his fundraising.

“We’ve got to make sure that at least one of us gets into the race, and I’d like it to be her if it’s not going to be me,” said McQuail.

There is a final fundraising push on deadline day, Nov. 30, he says, but even if his bid falls short, McQuail says he’ll give it his all on Thursday, with a national audience, watching.

“When I first ran, there were a handful of billionaires in Canada. Now they’re over 70. That’s a 1,400 per cent increase. I don’t think people’s well-being at the ordinary person level, has increased like that,” said McQuail.