By Tom VanDusen - AgriNews Staff Writer

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BELLEVILLE - Some 140 delegates gathered here on February 25 to ratify the founding constitution of the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) and to put in place its first elected executive.

As expected, the one and only Lanark Landowners Association (LLA) president Randy Hillier got the nod to lead the new umbrella organization. He was acclaimed to the position, while Glengarry County’s Jamie MacMaster is the new vice-president.

Delegates also picked six governors and 10 directors to oversee OLA activities for the next two years.

As ever, the primary objective is to protect the rights of property owners by seeing them enshrined in the Canadian Constitution, Hillier stated.

"Until our demands are satisfied, the OLA will work to exercise its right to defend and promote the cause of individual property rights within its jurisdiction by all legal and reasonable means," he said.

There are now 10 accredited OLA associations representing 24 counties, Hillier noted.

"There are more ready to stand up and be counted in the fight to establish true democracy and put power back into the hands of the people," he added.

The new OLA constitution compels members to "enforce and defend the sanctity of private property rights."

They also have a founding declaration, which decries the "darkness of injustice and the long shadows of oppression" blanketing the landscape and which advocates a separate rural province as the ultimate objective in correcting the situation.

The declaration calls on members to meet with determination and resolve the "systematic attack by government bureaucracy and false environmentalism."

It proposes that OLA chapters field and support candidates for municipal, provincial and federal office. Should the need arise, it commits the association to forming its own political party.

The declaration also promises referendums on municipal de-amalgamation and elections for federal senators representing rural Ontario.

The constitution and declaration serve as distinct reminders of exactly where the OLA/LLA is coming from.

For this organization, rural Ontario is "home to darkness," with the voice of its residents "silent and muted within the bureaucratic halls of power."

While the constitution is a fairly straightforward statement of the OLA’s determination to see property rights protected, the founding declaration is a call to arms.

It laments collective oppression supplanting individual liberty, coercion, intimidation and wrongdoing becoming the lawful exercise of authority, with the "brightness of prosperity and freedom but a dim reminder of a bountiful past."

The declaration thunders on: "Collective security and bestowed privileges become the hands that prey upon unsuspecting common people and enslave them by deceptively removing their freedom to own, use, and enjoy the fruits of their industry: their private property.

"It is only when common people rise up and shine the light of knowledge into the deep recesses and crevices of unlawful authority does prosperity reign once again."

As chief architect of both cornerstone documents forming the OLA’s foundation, Hillier remains the driving force behind the landowners’ movement.

As the OLA/LLA tandem gradually introduces more democratic concepts into its structure, Hillier said that he, for one, is in no hurry to open voting to the general membership. In his mind, voting performed by assigned chapter representatives is at least as democratic.

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