Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said last week that his Progressive Conservative predecessor was feeding anti-Canadian Wheat Board arguments to the Americans.
In an interview, Goodale recounted a conversation he had early in his term with then-American agriculture secretary Mike Espy.
It was a time when the Americans were trying to limit Canadian grain exports south.
“In one conversation I had with Mike Espy, he was going on at length about the evils of the Canadian Wheat Board,” said Goodale. “I interrupted him and said ‘Mike, that is factually incorrect. Where do you get this stuff?’ And he said ‘well, Charlie Mayer told me’.”
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Mayer was wheat board minister throughout the government of Brian Mulroney, and agriculture minister in 1993 when Espy became U.S. agriculture secretary.
Goodale told the story after being asked why his relationship with the Americans appeared less warm than it had been under the Conservative government.
“Maybe that is an indication that there was a cozy, almost perverse, relationship previously,” he said. “Obviously, any Canadian agriculture minister wants to have a good working relationship with his American counterpart but there obviously needs to be a bottom line and that is that I will not compromise the Canadian industry.”
Complaints won’t stop
Goodale predicted the agriculture minister in the next government will have to face aggressive American complaints about Canada again.
He recounted the “painful and difficult” negotiations in 1994 to limit American controls on Canadian grain sales south.
“The U.S., of course, is back at that game again,” he said. “We will need to be just as determined in this next round to cope with their pressure and their tactics.”
He said any Canadian government must be prepared to defend Canadian policy against American attack.
And he used the point to take a swipe at prairie farmers who have been selling grain across the border without Canadian Wheat Board permits.
He said it is exactly the type of action that can cause international problems. Already, he has sensed the Americans have the illegal border crossings on their mind although “they have not directly raised the point.”
Goodale said “responsible” farm groups should be careful about giving international competitors an issue.
“If the Americans come at me with an argument about illegal cross-border movements, that’s impossible to defend,” said the minister. “That undermines the entire Canadian side of the equation, at potentially great harm to all farmers.”
