Alberta Conservative MP Ted Menzies, elected in 2004 as a former farm leader opposed to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly and supply management protectionism, is retiring to widespread praise.
Even many of his adversaries sung his praises last week.
He had been rumoured as a possible finance minister if current minister Jim Flaherty steps down or is shuffled in a cabinet remake expected as early as this week.
The MP whose Macleod riding south of Calgary was one of the hardest hit areas in the Alberta floods announced he will step down from his junior but important cabinet role as minister of state for finance when the cabinet is shuffled this summer.
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He will not run in the 2015 election after 11 years in Parliament.
The 61-year-old former wheat farmer said the impact of the flood in High River and through the Claresholm area where he has owned a farm for decades convinced him he should be at home and not in Ottawa.
He was president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, a founding member of Grain Growers of Canada and an early leader of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance.
Menzies was not available for an interview as his constituency continued to struggle with the aftermath of the flooding.
“Witnessing the effects of the floods across southern Alberta and the devastation of High River and other communities, I have decided that it is important for me to be here more often,” he said in his statement. “What brought me to Ottawa was a love of community and the desire to help Albertans and Canadians the best way I knew possible.”
Menzies’ planned retirement brought expressions of regret from across the farm lobby and political spectrum.
“I do believe Ted is one of the better ones within the Conservative caucus and the Harper cabinet,” veteran Liberal MP Wayne Easter said July 5.
Easter was a bitter political opponent of the Conservatives’ successful push, with Menzies near the centre, to end the CWB marketing monopoly last year. But Easter said Menzies is bigger than that issue and despite their differences, he did not consider him to be an enemy.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett often found himself on the opposite side of the CWB debate with Menzies but he also said he regrets Menzies’ decision to retire.
“He was the kind of guy who was very approachable and while we might disagree with him, he was diplomatic and was a gentleman in our disagreements,” Bonnett said.
Grain Growers of Canada executive director Richard Phillips said Menzies was a key government advocate of agricultural trade expansion and helped convince Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canadian grain farmers that a national grain organization was possible and would not be prairie-dominated.
In politics, his ability to forge friendships across party lines was key, said Phillips.
