LEAMINGTON
Moving Forward
Story by Shelley Divnich Haggert
Many, many years ago, while living in northern Ontario, I happened upon a guy selling
produce from the back of a truck in the parking lot of a mini-mall on a summer afternoon.
Produce is always from somewhere else when you live in the Canadian Shield, but to see it
outside the confines of a grocery store was beyond rare. As I browsed the fruits and veggies, the
sight of plump red tomatoes lightened my heart. “These look so good, they could be
Leamington tomatoes,” I remarked, having been born and raised in Essex County.
“They are,” said the produce man. As it turns out, the grower – whose name I cannot
remember – drove up north several times each summer to sell his Sun Parlour produce. I was
tickled – Leamington tomatoes in a place that only seemed to grow pine trees and black flies! I
emptied my wallet.
Eighteen months ago, it was hard to be optimistic about the Tomato Capital of Canada. H.J.
Heinz had just announced it would close the last of its Leamington operations, a place it had
called home for more than a century. Media reports across Ontario hinted at the possibility of
rampant unemployment, a mass exodus of residents and irreperable damage to the
agricultural roots of the community.
“We were worried about a lot of things,” says Leamington mayor John Paterson. “The
employees, the taxpayers, the farmers. It certainly shook the emotional foundation of the
municipality.”
But down does not mean out, and Leamington – part of a region that’s no stranger to
changing economic and industrial times – was quick to rise to the challenge. “Everybody took
a deep breath and said, okay, now what?”
‘What” has consisted of what Paterson calls a concerted effort among many parties and
organizations to make sure Leamington landed on its feet.
28 The HUB -June 2015