Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Authoritarian Amherstburg

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:41pm - 14 Comments

Former agriculture minister Eugene Whelan finds there’s no politics like local marina politics.

Eugene Whelan, the town’s best-known political figure, is fuming. ”They stole my signs.”

The same day that his letter criticizing the looming sale of the municipally owned Walter Ranta Marina appeared in The Windsor Star, a protest sign about the same issue was yanked out of his lawn by town staff. ”It’s a mockery of democracy,” said Whelan, often remembered as perhaps the most-loved agriculture minister Canada ever had. His wife Liz witnessed the early morning heist…

By e-mail, town administrator Pam Malott said a student employee had misunderstood instructions to remove only the protest signs left on the marina property on the outskirts of town.

Tags: Amherstburg, Eugene Whelan

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Dakota

Is your opinion that he was "the most-loved agriculture minister Canada ever had" due to the fact he was a Trudeau Liberal?

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

It is Gary Rennie's opinion that Whelan was "most-loved agriculture minister Canada ever had" not Wherry's.

I think the most-loved bit should say most-loved in Windsor/Essex. I don't believe all that many Canadians have thoughts on who their favourite agri minsiter is or any minister other than PM or Finance for that matter.
http://intensedebate.com/people/NoNameCS NoNameCS

From Whelan's citation as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1987: "During his many years as Minister of Agriculture, "The Great Canadian Farmer" turned Canada into a country known the world over for the efficient production of top-quality food. As former President of the World Food Council and more recently as a businessman, he has devoted himself to the cause of worldwide hunger through long-term agricultural improvement in developing countries." I don't know if there is such a thing as a most loved Ag Minister. But surely we can all be grown up enough to talk about him without resorting to Trudeau-bashing antics, hmmm?
http://intensedebate.com/people/Be_rad Be_rad

He claims a visit by Gorbachev as the USSR agriculture minister to be a formative moment in his development of Glasnost.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

There's a piece about that.

I always thought the turning point in the Cold War / development of Glasnost-Perestroika was when Gorbachev came here, visited a farm in the West, toured it with the farmer, admired its vast expanse, and finally said (as a good Communist), "I'd like to meet the workers." Farmer: "There are no workers, just me and the wife." I.e. our productivity was through the roof by Soviet standards, and Gorbachev heard the footsteps of economic doom.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Habitant Habitant

No matter where you stand in politics, Eugene Whelan was a far better, classier Minsiter of Agriculture than the immature Gerry Ritz. I suspect, Dakota, your blind devotion to your CPC will prevent you from conceding that point but, I don't think these two are even in the same ballpark… I'd also add that farmers across Canada could appreciate and relate to Mr. Whelan far more than Ritz.

The people of Windsor/Essex know this and will always be thankful for Mr. Whelan (this Ranta Marina issue is one more reason). His defence of the people of Windsor/Essex has always been unflappable.

(as I am much less partisan than yourself Dakota, I will go so far as to say that Susan Whelan did not once get elected on her own accord – her name had much more to do with it…)

http://intensedebate.com/people/Douglass Douglass

Way to throw a student under the bus town administrator Pam Malott.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Local marina politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.