I see and chat with MPP Ernie Hardeman most years at the annual Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) convention banquet in November. He and fellow MPPs usually attend the big banquet. Last year I greeted him in Dutch and we spoke a few Dutch sentences. Hardeman was born in Holland in 1947, the 11th of 15 children. The family immigrated to Elgin Country in 1952, where they purchased a farm and chicken hatchery. Following his father’s death in 1955, the family, by then comprised of 12 siblings, settled in Mount Elgin.
I wrote about Hardeman in 1999 when Mike Harris appointed him as Ontario agriculture minister. He was the owner and operator of Hardeman Feed Limited, established in Salford, Ontario from 1966 to 1995.
He served as Mayor of the Township of Southwest Oxford from 1988 to 1994. He was chair of the Wardens’ Association of Ontario in 1990–91.
First a little history from my files on the many provincial agriculture ministers we had in Ontario. Bob Rae’s NDP government was defeated in 1995 and the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris won the election. The Tories were swept back in power. Noble Villeneuve became the new agriculture minister. Noble lost his seat in the next election and Ernie Hardeman took over. Hardeman wasn’t capable of handling the agricultural portfolio and was replaced by Brian Coburn. Coburn was relieved after two years and we had our first female agriculture minister, Helen Johns. Shetried hard and would have been a good minister, but she lost her seat when voters turfed out the Ernie Eves’ government in favour of the Liberals.
Hardeman was elected to the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 1995, defeating the NDP member by about 8,000 votes. Hardeman was a government backbench supporter for the next four years.
He was easily re-elected in the 1999 provincial election. He was appointed to cabinet by Mike Harris as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in June of 1999. As Minister, he replaced agricultural offices with the Agricultural Information Contact Centre. He was removed from cabinet in February of 2001.
He was cited for poor management of his portfolio. In February of 2003, he returned to cabinet under Ernie Eves in the new position of Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, with Responsibility for Rural Affairs.
Hardeman was re-elected in the 2003 election. He supported Jim Flaherty’s unsuccessful bid for the Progressive Conservative party’s leadership in 2004. In June of 2005 Hardeman’s private members bill, Farm Implements Amendment Act, received third reading and royal assent.
In 2007 Hardeman was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term. He served as Deputy House Leader and was then promoted to Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies. He is also the PC critic for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
In June of 2008 Hardeman introduced a private member’s bill which allows farmers to post seasonal, directional signage along provincial highways to advertise their Ontario grown produce and direct consumers to the farm. The bill was supported by many agricultural groups and unanimously passed first, second and third reading. On December 10, 2008 Signage to Promote Ontario Produced Agricultural Products Act received royal assent and became law.
Last week Premier Doug Ford appointed Ernie Hardeman to his cabinet as minister for agriculture, food and rural affairs. Hardeman has been the MPP for the Woodstock area since 1995.
