Ron Dillman, a cofounder of the Dufferin Landowners Association, has thrown his hat in the ring as a contender for the top political position in Melancthon Township.

Owner of a Shelburnearea septage disposal business for many years, Mr. Dillman is only the second person who has registered in the township for the November municipal election.

The only other person is a former deputy reeve, D.C. Broderick, who is aiming for a return to council in the deputy mayor's position after an absence.

Mr. Dillman says he wants to be in a position to try to make a difference. "As an ordinary Joe, I don't have much of a chance." But he said he hopes a municipal political post would put him in a position to wield some influence.

As a co-founder of an organization that seeks to acquire Charter rights in land ownership for all people, and not only for minorities and native populations, he said he wants to be able to exercise a stronger voice.

Mr. Dillman has in the past made representations to public meetings at provincial workshops and at county council. He says he has not been satisfied with responses.

Specifically, he referred to "public consultation" on nutrient management and to other new legislation.

He described the prestatute provincial consultation process as farcical. "It's all cut and dried before the meetings." There was to have been "extensive public consultation" on the Nutrient Management Act (NMA). There were 13 public meetings, he said, but almost all were across Lake Ontario to Ottawa.

For the NMA, the nearest to Dufferin was effectively

in Owen Sound. He said he made representations to that one, but has had no response from anyone. Dufferin County was invited to a public consultation meeting. But that was on June 9 and the meeting was June 15. There was a two-day weekend in between the notice and the meeting.

Mr. Dillman is quick to say that he doesn't know how much difference he could make to the process if and when elected. "It's too early to tell. I don't know who would be sitting around the table (at county council). I don't know if they're going to sit around arguing for two hours about a bicycle path."

Mr. Dillman moved to Amaranth Township in 1965 from Mississauga, where he had been leasing farm property just north of Malton. There, he bought a farm from former Dufferin warden George Burnside, and soon discovered that the septic tank needed cleaning.

The Burnsides "had no children, so they didn't have a problem. We had four, so we quickly learned that the tank needed to be pumped."

At the time, the only septage pumper was in

Mount Forest. That person had rolled his truck, and appeared to have gone out of business.

Mr. Dillman says he promptly obtained "some antiquated equipment" to pump his own tank, and quickly became established. Within three years, he modernized with "as far as I know, the first vacuum pumps in Dufferin."

His sense of reliability might have been responsible for Mr. Dillman's ultimate success in the septage business. He recalls that he got a call one day from Orangeville's sewage plant manager, Clarence Clark, who hadn't been able to rely on his hauler.

Could the Dillman company handle the Orangeville sludge? It could and did, and never looked back.

Today, now farming 160 acres in Melancthon, Mr. Dillman has been married for 48 years and has four children, all of whom still live in the area.

With his son in the business, he has more time to devote to public interests. In addition to his insistence on better public consultation "before the fact," and his belief in individual property rights, he says he would like to be part of "a stronger rural voice."