MAYOR GUY DESJARDINS : GROWING A BETTER FUTURE
Gregg Chamberlain He was a plumber by trade long before he got involved in municipal politics. But in his heart, Guy Desjardins has always been a farmer, and now as mayor he is applying his “green thumb” experience and expertise to helping cultivate a more prosperous future for the City of ClarenceRockland.
The city’s new mayor describes himself as someone who “likes to play in farming”, but that statement comes with a broad smile. He grew up in the Orléans area when that Ottawa suburb was still an independent municipality.
«Orléans was mostly farming country when I was there,» he said. «I worked on farms as a student, and I enjoyed farming. I went into plumbing (career) because that’s where the better money was to buy a farm.»
How serious he was then about farming as a young man is easy to see by his present situation in his home ward of St-PascalBaylon. The 15-acre site he bought with his plumber’s wages has since expanded to 300 acres that he and his son, Christopher, co-manage. The Desjardins farm operation includes a small dairy cattle herd plus cash crop fields of corn, soy, and hay, and five fairsized greenhouses for cherry and hothouse tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, beans, kale, and greenhouse strawberries.
«It’s peaceful in the greenhouses,» Desjardins, regarding his passion for farming. «I like growing stuff. It’s enjoyable.»
Farming was also part of the reason why he decided to get involved in local city politics. He decided to run for the St-Pascal-Baylon constituency when Ronald Lalonde, the ward councillor at the time, decided not to let his name stand for re-election.
«The reason I went in was to have a voice for agriculture,» Desjardins said. «We had a lot of city councillors then who were federal workers, or just all city boys. There needed to be a voice for agriculture there (at city hall) since we are surrounded by agriculture in our municipality.»
One of the first things Desjardins saw to, during the early days of his first term as St-Pascal’s new councillor, was to have the village community centre named after his predecessor to honour Lalonde’s involvement in the community. After that, he focused his attention on learning the rules of the political game during his first term and making good on that experience during his second term after a successful re-elec
Mayor Guy Desjardins on the campaign trail last fall.