The Right to Be Rural: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
Dr. Ashleigh Weeden, a policy expert with long-standing ties to Grey-Bruce, argues that rural neglect poses serious risks to Canada’s security and stability.
Rural neglect isn’t just a local issue — it’s a national security risk.
That’s the central message of Dr. Ashleigh Weeden’s latest article, published April 8 in Policy Options, where she lays out a stark warning: Canada cannot protect its sovereignty, stability, or future prosperity without serious investment in rural communities.
Drawing on both national analysis and deeply local relevance, Weeden argues that decades of underinvestment have left rural regions — including Grey-Bruce — vulnerable to economic disruption, environmental crises, and exploitation during periods of political instability.
Gaps in digital infrastructure, clean water access, healthcare, and transportation have weakened community resilience and, by extension, national readiness.
Dr. Ashleigh Weeden has deep personal and professional ties to the Grey-Bruce region. Before pursuing her doctorate, she spent several years working for Grey County in a variety of community development roles, including leading the County’s first campaign to be recognized as an Intelligent Community.
Over the last decade, she has continued to support community-based research and policy development across Grey-Bruce, focusing on challenges such as digital access, labour force development, cross-sector collaboration, and place-based innovation.
In her article, Weeden emphasizes how rural areas — home to much of Canada’s critical resources and infrastructure — are too often treated as resource extraction zones rather than as full participants in national development. This has led to fractured social cohesion, regional resentment, and vulnerabilities in areas like agricultural data governance that are rarely part of the public conversation.
For readers in regions like Grey-Bruce, the issues raised will be familiar: the struggle for reliable broadband, the centralization of health and education services, and the ongoing challenge of ensuring rural priorities are reflected in policy decisions made elsewhere.
Weeden’s piece offers a clear, accessible overview of how these issues are connected — and why more robust, rural-focused policymaking is not just about fairness, but about securing Canada’s future.
🡒 Read the full article at Policy Options: “Effective rural policy is critical to Canada's security, stability, and sovereignty” by Dr. S. Ashleigh Weeden.