Tuesday, March 12, 1968

There’s no question in anybody's mind in respect to that and I say no more nor have I yet as to who has been responsible for killing the “cock robin” of industrial development .111 this Province today. I do say this, that I think industrial development in this Provmce was attempted in a sincere manner to compliment our other few resources, to try to alleviate the condition that we find ourselves in and that is worsening as times goes on. I pray that this Government will throw off its bondage to politics and as sincerely try to solve these vaxatious problems. You’ve good men over there, Mr. Premier. There are good men as elected representatives of the people in this Chamber on either side of the House. Let’s use them. This has always been the challengs of the Leader of the Opposition, to formulate policies and new ap- proaches, new measures but some of them that have never been tried before. Let’s conSider them and let’s not buy any false gods. Let’s be made aware of what those things will be so that the people’s representatives can decide with the co-operation of the people of this Province, not on the basis that some thinkers that may have something to offer us but may not always have the solution or the knowledge of the problems so much as those who are more deeply concerned. Let’s forget our ani- mosities, deep rooted and justified as they may seem from either side of the street. To say those things can’t be done, can’t be accomplished, is to accept defeatism and worsen our position. \Xe deplore Zhe depressed state of Agriculture but lets present some challenge to our people. I think people today, even young people that we’re so interested in, need more challenges and less handouts, more avenues to express them- selves in constructively and possibly more discipline and it’s not a happy thought in the minds of anyone what happened at the Airport a few nights ago. I respect the man who came down here to deal with you people and am not happy in the way he was welcomed. You know, it’s with great concern I see smiles on the faces of mem- bers in this Legislature when they are trying to establish the blame.. You know Mr.

Minister of Agriculture, as I said before, there’s not many smiles on the people work- ing in agriculture today. . ..

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: What smile are you talking about?

J. Walter Dingwell: And until they’re brought back we are going to need some more constructive management to solve our problems. I challenge this House, as never before, to search and seek and solve, not by any grandiloquence or pie in the sky, but by constructive study and inplementation of measures. You know, this morning we had an Agricultural Committee meeting and I was impressed and I’m not divulg- ing anything of what went on in that particular meeting, but I do believe, to quite a measure, that men of this Province, men standing as representatives of the people around a table like that opening and frankly talking over their problems and trying to find solutions for them would make a greater contribution to the solving of this problem than it may be possible to do in this Legislature. Politics hasn’t done much for us in the past hundred years after all, has it? Politics rather than policy has retarded our growth to a great extent sometimes and we haven’t time, much more time, to wait. What is going to happen to the business community of this Province, to the administration area of this Province or to the legal profession or any other when the farmers are forced to take off for Ontario or somewhere else to make a living? The Minister, Provincial Treasurer in his challenge the other day, and it was a forceful challenge, and it was a thoughtful challenge and it was a necessary chal- lenge and I believe that he sincerely believed what he was saying but I’ll Venture to suggest that there’ll just be as many bushes cut next summer for political purposes as ever before. (Applause) And I hope I’m not right but I’m afraid the same gods will be served as ever. I suggest that we have sufficient administrative body in this Province to look after a Province five times its size and we have _a business community competing for too few dollars that would service a community of five times its size and we have a dwindling population that this economy must all feed on, the primary producer and I suggest that it’s not fewer farmers and bigger acreage that is the answer to the problems that face us. This is a problem that not only faces the farmer but it faces the Government and the business community as well, and I suggest that we need ten times, possibly, as many farmers as we have today and if each one of them is getting a haircut sometimes, there’ll be.more haircuts won’t there? The same if he wants to buy a ‘frige or some other article. The more people we have here, it’s not the lack of people. The lack of people is what we do not want, it’s more people and we have some of the finest Citizens coming from small farms where agriculture is one of the phases in soc1ety thats enVied. We ve

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