Alberta MP Leon Benoit of the Canadian Alliance wants government income protection programs to compensate farmers whose crops are damaged by gophers.
Winnipeg New Democrat Judy Wasylycia-Leis joins Toronto Liberal Charles Caccia in wanting Parliament to require labeling of all genetically modified food.
Veteran Saskatchewan New Democrat Lorne Nystrom is continuing a decades-long campaign to have farmers guaranteed cost-of-production prices for their commodities.
And rural Ontario MP Murray Calder is resurrecting his idea that the Canadien breed be designated by Parliament as the national horse of Canada.
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These are core ideas contained in private member’s bills tabled in Parliament by these MPs. They have little chance of becoming law but private bills are one way that individual MPs, usually backbenchers, can focus attention on an issue of a particular concern to their constituents or themselves.
Besides giving MPs a chance to speak on an issue close to their hearts, private member’s bills can become the focus of parliamentary debates, sometimes attract public support and, on rare occasions, force a parliamentary vote.
Nystrom has been riding his cost-of-production hobbyhorse through at least four Parliaments, without apparent parliamentary progress but attracting a steady flow of citizen petitions supporting the idea.
Benoit produced his bill on gopher damage to crops on March 28 hoping that rather than risk facing higher farm income protection costs, Ottawa would allow farmers to use poison strong enough to control gophers.
It has little chance of becoming law or changing farm income support programs, although it will give the issue some profile.
The issue of GM labeling actually came to a vote in the last Parliament, forced by Bloc Québecois MP Hélene Alarie who has since been defeated. A majority of Liberals and Canadian Alliance MPs combined to vote it down.
This Parliament will see another vote, since Caccia’s bill has been chosen as a “votable” bill. It almost certainly will be defeated, since the government is committed to voluntary labels. However, Wasylycia-Leis said the fact the issue keeps coming back is significant in showing “the growing concern in Parliament for this matter.”
Calder’s Canadien horse bill is back for a second time.
In the last Parliament, it caused an uproar in the Bloc Québecois caucus because the Quebec government wanted to designate the Canadien as Quebec’s “national horse” as well.
Calder told the House recently that the horse first arrived in New France in 1665 “from the stables of Louis XIV.” It was the work horse of the colony because it was strong, tough and able to survive long cold winters with limited food.
By the end of the 19th century, it was almost extinct. Since then, breeders have been increasing the herd, which now numbers close to 1,000 across Canada.
Calder said the horse is unique because it is “strong for its size, intelligent, well-tempered, resilient and determined. These qualities make it a perfect symbol for Canada.”
