a long road to haul

In the aftermath of the recent political turmoil Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells commented ruefully that the Liberal Party had a long road to haul. I was struck by this modernisation of the old expression a long row to hoe which dates back to American English of the early 1800s.

Hoeing the row is an agricultural image with which we have little sympathy these days. Not many of us wield a hoe on hard and stony ground, not even in our own gardens. So the update to the world of trucks and long haulage is understandable. The Senator is not alone in doing this. There are many others who are going for the long haul rather than the arduous hoeing.