Dairy farmer and MPP Paul Vickers.
Farmers Forum staff
MEAFORD — The Ontario Legislature resumed last month for the first time since the February election, with a crop of MPPs that includes the first active dairy farmer to take a seat at Queen’s Park in quite some time.
Paul Vickers (PC – Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound) captured 44 % of the votes cast in his riding in February after standing for election as the Progressive Conservative candidate.
Vickers still works as a milk producer with his two sons, Franklin and Jack, at the family’s Meaford-area dairy farm. He’s likely the first active dairy farmer elected to the legislature since John Vanthof (NDP – Timiskaming-Cochrane) arrived in 2011. Vanthof, however, exited the dairy industry in 2014.
Vickers was recently named one of two parliamentary assistants to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, Trevor Jones (PC-Chatham-Kent-Lemington).
Besides Vickers, there are precious few MPPs with any sort of farming background. The others are Vanthof, Rob Flack (PC Elgin-Middlesex-London) who had a career with Masterfeeds, and Lisa Thompson (PC Huron-Bruce),a meat-goat producer.
