MP Scott Reid and MPP Randy Hillier Find Themselves in Hot water

Jeff Green | Nov 26, 2009

Editorial by Jeff Green

MP Scott Reid and MPP Randy Hillier have done something that no one else seems to have been able to do – they have created unanimity on Lanark Highlands Council over, of all things, water.

They did so by sending out a questionnaire asking whether the ratepayers would like to see a water plant built in the Village of Lanark, or would prefer support for a continued well and septic-based water system. The price tags for the two options are vastly different, and the issue itself has been festering for years and years.

What has brought about municipal agreement, even though the local council is as split on the issue as ever, is outrage over the incursion of federal and provincial politicians into a municipal matter.

Hillier and Reid were recently rebuked by Lanark County Council over their questionnaire/referendum.

The council approved a motion directing the county warden to send a letter to Ontario Conservative Party leader Tim Hudack and to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

The letter complained about “the direct intrusion of their party’s elected members in an issue which is clearly a municipal responsibility.”

While this issue has gained notoriety in Lanark County political circles, another related issue could become a major issue in the run up to the 2010 municipal election.

The Ontario Landowners Association announced recently that it is planning to run candidates in next year’s municipal election throughout Lanark County, which would be something new for municipal politics in Eastern Ontario.

The Ontario Landowners are an offshoot of the Lanark Landowners Association, which was founded by none other than Randy Hillier. It came about as the result of a rural caucus that then rookie MP Scott Reid held at his home in Carleton Place.

Notwithstanding these connections, the Landowners have always been a political entity. They have made a name for themselves as an advocacy group in response to government.

When Randy Hillier resigned from the Landowners and ran for the Ontario Conservatives, he did have another option. If his candidacy had not been accepted by the Conservatives, there was a very really possibility that an Ontario Landowners Party could have been formed, with potentially devastating implications for the Conservatives.

Hillier was accepted by the Conservatives, and the Landowners remain an advocacy group, but putting together a slate of candidates would make them some sort of municipal party, which is something that has never been seen in this part of the province.

Although municipal politicians are often party members of one of the mainline parties, they run and serve on municipal councils as independent ratepayers.

If the Landowners can run candidates, other political parties might follow.

Municipal councils are often full of disagreements and disputes, and water treatment plants have been a prime example in a rural setting of how difficult it can be to move forward, as in the case of the Village of Lanark, and recently, the hamlet of Sydenham.

But compared to Queen's Park or Parliament Hill, there is a refreshing openness to municipal debate, openness that is brought about because the politicians are elected on an independent basis. They have no one to answer to. They are free to agree or disagree with each other, and are not beholden to a party leader or leader's office.

Adding party ideology, from the right-wing, left-wing or libertarian quarters, would be a detriment to municipal decision making

Reid and Hillier's interventions into the Lanark water and sewer issue pale in comparison to that possibility.