THE STICKS—Ahhh — big breath — that fresh country scent.Manure.Honest fertilizing s---. Not to be mistaken for the malodorous stuff that’s been slung around the Ontario legislature in recent days.The city girl fills her lungs.Probably the only person among thousands present who has arrived at the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo by cab.Here, on Tuesday, as a fly on the wall. Or a fly on the dung.Read more:Doug Ford dismisses protesters at International Plowing MatchOpinion | Susan Delacourt: Ottawa worried Ford’s Washington visit could impact NAFTA talksFormer attorney general urges Mulroney to reconsider using the notwithstanding clause“You can catch the shuttle,” suggests a volunteer.Wow, a shuttle? How very accommodating on a scorching September morning.Except it’s a wagon, hauled by a tractor, bouncing over the rutted path.Makes sense, the city girl figures. This is tractor country after all. At many nearby farms, tractors are parked in front yards as decorative displays, along with all the harvest adornments, whimsical scarecrows and such.The city girl finds herself humming “Farmer’s Song” by Murray McLauchlan: “Straw hats and old dirty hankies/Mopin’ a face like a shoe/Thanks for the meal here’s a song that is real/From the kid from the city to you.”Dismounting into the middle of a parade, right behind the NDP wagon, where Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath and her lefty colleagues, in bright orange windbreakers, wave at the crowd and toss apples. Trailed by vintage Cougar, atop which perch the Queen of the Furrow and the Chatham-Kent Queen of the Furrow.Horwath, the city girl is told, is reigning champion of the pol plowing contest. She’s more than just a chronically furrowed brow.Greeted with homespun warmth at the main stage tent where a band of geezers has been entertaining the audience, stomping country tunes. (The city girl reminds herself — ...
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