rural Ontario

In virtually all rural areas in Ontario the limited transportation alternatives means that rural residents without access to a personal vehicle are at great risk of transportation disadvantage. The primary research method for this research involved testing a transportation disadvantage framework using fourteen Key Informant Interviews undertaken with service providers operating within the case study of Huron County. The research found that residents within five demographic groups are at risk of transportation disadvantage within Huron County: older adults, those with physical or mental disabilities, youth, low-income households, and women. The research confirmed that transportation disadvantage exists on a continuum with some groups more disadvantaged than others, but also within groups with some accessibility needs more attainable than others. The research concludes with suggestions for a public transportation system to improve unmet transportation needs in Huron County along with recommendations for improving transportation access within the county.

In virtually all rural areas of Ontario, Canada, the limited availability of transportation alternatives means that rural residents without access to a personal vehicle are at an increased risk of transportation disadvantage. To date, little research has been conducted in Ontario as to the transportation limitations of rural residents, nor has a comprehensive study of groups at risk of transportation disadvantage been conducted. To address this gap, this research involved the development and testing of a transportation disadvantage framework, using Key Informant Interviews with service providers operating within Huron County, Ontario. Five demographic groups were found to be at risk of transportation disadvantage within Huron County: (1) older adults, (2) those with physical or mental disabilities, (3) youth, (4) people in low-income households, and (5) women. The results confirm that transportation disadvantage exists on a continuum, with some groups more disadvantaged than others, as well as some services more attainable than others. The framework was found to be a useful, and accessible, starting point for assessing groups at risk of transportation disadvantage in a rural community. The findings suggest that a coordinated transportation service, serving multiple demographic groups, may contribute to reducing transportation disadvantage while better utilizing the resources of existing service providers.

The Keady Farmer’s Market is an uneasy hybridity of flea market, livestock sale, and farmers’ market. A weekly occasion in the small Ontario hamlet, the Market is also a site of ethnography; offering up a rich field of study, with windows into the realities of collectivity, capitalism, and race relations. This paper, not so much a critique as an attempt at critical understanding of the event, seeks uncover what aspects of self, culture, and society can be understood through a critical assessment of the Keady Market. Interpreted through a marrying of the academic literature on Bakhtin's carnivalesque and the literature of farmers’ markets, vignettes of the author’s personal experiences of the Market serve as points of entry into a discussion of the politics at play in this festive occasion.