Plowing Match 24: Jim Ginn ready to show off Central Huron during match

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn has a long family history with local plowing matches. His municipality is now, once again, hosting the Huron County Plowing Match and he’s happy to bring people home for a celebration of all things agriculture.

He sees it that way because, well... he has to. He isn’t much of a plower himself. He has employed no-till practices at his farm between Clinton and Goderich for many years, but he has always been able to appreciate its importance and the importance of local plowing matches to Huron County history.

This is, of course, the man who served as Huron County Warden in 2017, the year Walton played host to the International Plowing Match (IPM). In fact, being the warden for the year of that match was part of the package he sold to his fellow Huron County Councillors when he was seeking the top position. He felt that a farmer should be the Huron County Warden when the world came calling for the IPM. 

He wasn’t the first one to think that, however. At least in Huron County the first one to think that way was his father, Gerry. His sentiments echoed Gerry’s; he said the same thing when he was warden in 1978, the year the IPM was held near Wingham.
“The thinking back then was that most people know so little about farming that they would need someone at their shoulder to explain it to them,” Ginn said about his father’s statement before the 1978 IPM. 

The IPM is, of course, the only event that closes the provincial legislature on an annual basis. Knowing that many important people throughout the province will be at Ontario’s biggest agricultural exhibit of the year is crucial for Huron County.
Huron is the province’s most agriculturally-rich county and the business is vital to its economy and its way of life.

The Ginn family’s roots in Huron County reach back to the 1830s. He is the sixth generation of his family to reside in Huron and his children are the seventh.

The family first settled on a farm in Goderich Township near Benmiller. The family stayed on the farm for decades until 1952 when Ginn’s current farm along Highway 8 between Clinton and Goderich was brought into the family. At the time, Gerry’s brother took over the family farm.

Over the years, from childhood to adulthood, Ginn has remained involved with local Huron County Plowing Matches and IPMs. Ginn says the first IPM he remembers attending was in 1966, when Huron hosted what would be called the Mud Match. As a student, he remembers his fellow students all getting their boots caught in the mud while walking through the grounds.
He says he also remembers the 1978 match, when his father was warden. However, because his father was so busy that week, much of Ginn’s time was spent on the farm doing chores in his father’s absence.

When Huron County hosted the match in 1999, Ginn was in charge of the event’s dairy exhibition and then, of course, he was an active leader throughout the 2017 IPM. Although day was cancelled due to rain, there was an overwhelming attendance on the remaining days and even a visit from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in addition to then-Premier Kathleen Wynne and a number of other notable provincial politicians.

Currently, as planning for this local match, marking the 100th anniversary of the first Huron match, Ginn has been as involved and helpful as possible. He says he really sees the Huron County Plowing Match as a celebration of agriculture, an opportunity to highlight those aspects of life in Huron County and a chance to show off Central Huron, one of the most diverse and eclectic municipalities in the county. 

It reaches to the southern tip of Blyth, encompassing Cowbell Brewery and the farmland in the former Hullett Township, as well as the businesses, service clubs, school and sports of Londesborough, in addition to the Town of Clinton and the historically-rich former Goderich Township, which stretches all the way to the shores of Lake Huron.

On that note, he said it’s nice for the match to be so close to Bayfield, one of the county’s true gems of a community with its beaches, shops and more. Furthermore, the match will lead directly into the Bayfield Fall Fair, which will continue the theme of celebrating agriculture going all through the weekend in that community.

As for accommodation, Ginn said Central Huron is lucky to be home to 11 campgrounds, which he feels are an undervalued aspect of tourism in Central Huron. He also noted the natural beauty of Koos and Nathalie Vermue’s farm and thinks those who attend the match will be similarly impressed by the chosen location.