Gib Drury, current QFA president, did not begin his career as a farmer. He was born in Ottawa, spent his elementary school years in Montreal, and then studied in the Eastern Townships. After obtaining a degree in political science and economics from Williams College in Massachusetts he worked for a stock broking firm in Montreal. But he quickly realized that that was not meant to last.

“I couldn’t stand working in an office,” he laughs. “It was that simple. I’m an outdoor person and I couldn’t stand being inside all day.”

His parents had bought a farm in Wakefield, Quebec, in the late 1940s but had never farmed it until Gib returned home in 1972. From the very start, he raised Hays Converter beef cattle. “Harry Hays was a cabinet colleague of my father so they were an obvious choice,” he explains. “I also happen to like them.”

Gib now farms a farm in Alcove, Quebec with his wife and two sons. They are currently pre-certified organic and have 250 head of cattle.

Gib is a very well known and much respected figure in the farming community because of his longstanding involvement at both the provincial and national levels.

In 2005, Gib was recognized for his 25 years of involvement with the UPA, most notably with the Beef Federation. In addition to being the current QFA President, he is president of the Beef Federation’s Outaouais-Laurentides regional syndicate, the Quebec director for the National Check-off Agency, a director for the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, is the only Quebec representative to sit as a director on Beef Improvement Ontario and is the treasurer for the Outaouais Fine Meats Cooperative. Gib has also served as the president of the Gatineau South – English syndicate of the UPA for 18 years.

“I quite enjoy the human contact with all the other farmers,” he explains. “I like getting together to hash out our problems. I feel that with my background in politics I can contribute to help move files forward.”

Gib has been a longstanding member of the QFA and he joined the Board of Directors in 1998 and has since spent two years as vice-president and is currently in his second term as president. He is very proud of the progress the QFA has made over the past year and he sees a bright future for the organization.

“The publication of the Advocate is kind of our jewel,” he explains. “We are getting the information out to the farmers, in their own language. We are doing that right.”

“In the future, I’d like to see the QFA continue its communications role but also more advocacy. However we first need to do consultations with our members and potential members before we do that. We obviously need to make sure that we are accurately representing the voice of our members, so we will need to do some internal restructuring and we are hoping to do that over the next couple of years.”