There are many farm-related issues before the Brian Pallister’s new Progressive Conservative government in Manitoba.
(Here’s our quick summary of the farm-related results last night:)
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A few are unavoidable, such as what to do with the Bipole III power line that is presently being built across hundreds of kilometres of farmland. Some will come up in the regular course of business, such as the moratorium on hog barn construction in Manitoba, which has only been slightly relaxed in recent months.
After nearly 17 years in power, and after running a government not generally considered to be sensitive to small business concerns – especially not to the concerns of mainstream, commercial farmers – many, many small issues could be addressed in the coming months and years.
During the election campaign The Western Producer spoke to farm and rural groups about their hopes for the election campaign, and we focused on a few issues that we thought could be affected by the election outcome. The following are links to those stories:
How did organizations feel about the visibility their issues gained?
Pressing ag issues in campaign paying off
One of the few farm-related concerns the PC party directly addressed was the desire of groups like Keystone Agricultural Producers for support for programs that reward farmers for protecting environmentally sensitive areas of their land.
PCs commit to ALUS in Manitoba election
What would a PC government do about the costly and controversial Bipole III power line? No promises made:
Man. farmers raise power project as election issue
For all three main political parties, water management is a dominant issue, and actually something all three directly addressed during the election campaign. Far more than in other Prairie provinces, water management matters in Manitoba because of its existence at the bottom of a drainage basin that reaches west to the Rockies, south into the United States, and east into the water-rich northwestern Ontario lake region.
Water management priority with farmers
As the campaign started, Manitoba’s farm-related organizations laid out their concerns and what they wanted parties to address. This is how we summed it up:
Farmers raise election issues
And what kind of farmers got involved in the election, running as candidates? This link contains one of the stories, plus links to two others:
Young farmer chooses Liberals
The election result Tuesday night replaces a government that has been in power for almost a generation. As a new regime with a profoundly different outlook takes over, the changes coming could be widespread and deep. Stay tuned.
