With the raucous Sarsfield hog farm controversy, novice Ottawa Coun. Phil McNeely has proven he can grab an issue by the tail - even a short, curly tail - and not let go.

Phil has been worrying this baby - should we say piglet - for weeks now, writing tart columns, invading meetings, blasting city staff, criticizing opponents, all in an effort to keep a Quebec operator from launching a piggery on 700 acres in Cumberland Ward... Phil’s electoral stompin’ grounds.

Phil, we get the message! You don’t like the proposal and you don’t think factory pig farms belong anywhere within miles of residences, anywhere within the expanded boundaries of the restructured City of Ottawa, for that matter.

Now it’s time to ease up a little, Phil. Everybody else can’t keep up with your breath-taking pace, your single-minded march towards defeating the pig plan. You’re trying to get there too fast, without dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s... and that dotting and crossing has to be done or - as has been pointed out to you - small family farms could get caught in the crossfire as you try to ram home preventative measures on the local level without waiting for arrival of the province’s Nutrient Management Act, damning the torpedoes all the way.

Another thing, Phil... there are those who actually don’t see it your way, those who think a hog farm is a perfectly viable and acceptable use on that particular 700 acres where the number of animals will be restricted and manure processing carefully controlled.

Whatever, you took it a little over the top the other day, Phil, when you quit the city’s agriculture and rural affairs committee which has declined to do your bidding on hogs, at least at that break-neck pace. You see, in a democratic process, the idea is to work hard, logically and reasonably to persuade your colleagues of the value of your argument. That can take time, Phil.

In the meantime, why not channel that formidable energy into understanding exactly what’s involved in modern hog farming and into learning about the immense technological strides that have been taken over the past decade in curbing odours and in responsibly managing nutrients.