Bruce County`s Pat Jilesen has been elected Director-At-Large with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
He will serve out the remaining two years of the term vacated by Lambton County`s Louis Roesch when Roesch moved into a zone position. He`s hoping to bring more dialogue and discussion to the board level to help reach a consensus on the issues facing the provincial agriculture sector.
It took 3 ballots for delegates to choose Peggy Brekveld from Northern Ontario for the full 3 year term position, and another 3 to elect Jilesen.
Balloting was delayed somewhat this morning because they were dealing with 9 candidates and also because they didn`t have enough electronic ballot equipment to handle the number of delegates.
That meant more than 20 delegates were using regular paper ballots while the rest were voting electronically.
OFA officials are hoping to have more equipment on hand for this afternoon`s President`s election.
The OFA convention wraps up tomorrow in Niagara Falls.
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Jilesen says his push for more dialogue with urban residents seemed to strike a chord with delegates.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JILESEN-Vote-1.mp3"][/audio]
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He says that probably means the OFA's Policy Advisory Council may have to meet more than 4 times a year.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JILESEN-Vote-2.mp3"][/audio]
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He says he`s a big fan of discussion of issues with input from a number of people, including bringing in Bruce Power officials to talk to the county group about nuclear energy.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/JILESEN-Vote-3.mp3"][/audio]
