Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty got a laugh out of local farmer George Beaudry at the 2010 International Plowing Match in St. Thomas, Ont., on Tuesday.
Ontario MPPs of all political stripes gathered in farm country on Tuesday for the annual International Plowing Match, where they got to burnish their rural credentials and reach out to voters before next year's provincial election.
The leaders of all three parties demonstrated their skills steering a tractor and took advantage of the opening ceremonies, where they each addressed hundreds of people, to boast about their own rural roots.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said his dad grew up on a farm. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak talked about how his riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook is in rural Ontario. New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath mentioned her summer jobs picking peaches and strawberries.
But it was Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who managed to upstage the three leaders when it came to all things rural. She was invited to officially open the plowing match, the biggest rural event of the year in Ontario.
"Growing up on a Hereford ranch in the foothills of southern Alberta, I developed a powerful love for the land and the creatures great and small that are a constant source of joy and wonder," Ms. Harper said in her opening remarks.
But the event gave all three leaders an opportunity to talk about rural Ontario. Mr. McGuinty is often accused by the opposition of ignoring residents in the province's vast rural stretches.
"This is an all-too-rare opportunity for us just to give thanks and to celebrate the extraordinary qualities to be found in rural Ontario," Mr. McGuinty told reporters.
Mr. Hudak repeated the same criticisms he has made against the government in the provincial legislature: "Farm families are being hit by higher costs," he said. "Rural communities are seeing jobs flee."
And Ms. Horwath announced plans to introduce a private member's bill that would require all provincial government ministries to put local food first.