It was after midnight, Geneva time, and Ralph Goodale was finishing a hastily-organized talk with reporters about the latest twist in last December’s tense world trade talks. A reporter headed for the door, bemoaning the fact that it was already 5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, past his deadline. “It’s 6:30,” said the agriculture minister, glancing at his watch. “You’re in worse shape than you thought.” No matter what time zone he is in, Goodale leaves his watch on Saskatchewan time. He says it is a constant reminder of who he represents.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
OTTAWA — Jack Wilkinson, president of Canada’s largest farm lobby group, was struggling to find the right words.
He had been asked to describe the agriculture minister he has dealt with for half a year.
“I think he looks at himself as a problem solver,” said the Canadian Federation of Agriculture leader.
But the question was: What philosophy drives Ralph Goodale’s problem-solving efforts?
“I would say he’s a liberal, although I have a hard time defining a Liberal philosophy these days,” said Wilkinson.
Let’s try this one more time: Does Ralph Goodale have an ideology that colors his view of the appropriate solutions for the food sector?
“I’m not convinced yet that I have a good handle on where he sees agriculture policy going, the mix between the commercial side and the social side,” said Wilkinson.
Six months into Goodale’s term as the minister responsible for the new government’s food policy, it is a typical response. For many, his intentions, goals and philosophy still seem unclear.
His ideology seems to be not to have an ideology.
He talks about wanting to be true to his Saskatchewan farm roots, about preserving a viable rural society.
Yet the 44-year-old lawyer/businessman/politician also seems to reject dogmatic assumptions about how best to attain those goals.
“He is a Liberal’s liberal,” says veteran party organizer Barb MacNiven from her Delisle, Sask. home.
“He’s a Liberal, with both a right and a left wing,” adds former Liberal agriculture minister Eugene Whelan, known to have navigated more than a few counter-clockwise circles in his day. “That’s what the Liberal bird is. You can’t fly with just a right or a left wing or you just go in circles.”
“He seems to be hard-working and pragmatic,” says Regina NDP MP John Solomon, who sat with Goodale in the Saskatchewan Legislature.
Hubert Esquirol, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and distinctly ‘right wing’, thinks he has spotted a ‘left wing’ lean to the minister.
But even he isn’t sure. “He does seem pragmatic and I don’t think I’ve seen yet if he has a vision for Canadian agriculture, where he wants to take us.”
No special mind-set
A direct question to Goodale about what draws him to politics sheds little light about his philosophy. He shows no passion nor populist inspiration, none of the underdog pretensions of Whelan nor the market theology of Charlie Mayer.
Goodale’s call to arms was the politician as problem-solver.
“There is much that is difficult and unpleasant about political life but there is also a rewarding side when you take charge of an issue, work your way through the complexities of it and eventually come out at the end of the day with solutions that bring results and benefits to the people you are elected to represent.”
It brings to mind a comment by Larry Schneider, former Regina-Wascana Conservative MP defeated by Goodale in the 1993 election: “When I campaigned against him, he struck me as someone long on talk and short on ideology.”
For all that, Goodale has been winning generally favorable reviews.
He has staked out territory as a friend of the Canadian Wheat Board, a promoter of trade and a firm defender of Canadian agricultural interests in tense trade talks with the Americans.
Lobbyists say he is accessible and appears willing to listen.
Easy relationship
He is well-liked within the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy, replacing an occasionally uneasy tension between the department and former Conservative minister Charlie Mayer with an easy, co-operative relationship.
Typically, a senior departmental official interrupted an interview on an unrelated topic to offer an unsolicited tribute to Goodale: “He is a breath of fresh air, well-liked, a quick study.”
In fact, his close relationship with the bureaucrats has brought one of the few hints of criticism for the minister.
The critics are Liberals who worry that Goodale will be captured by bureaucrats offering the same conservative solutions they were preparing for the former government.
“Mr. Goodale has to let the bureaucrats know that he is boss and there is a new government with a new agenda,” said MP Wayne Easter, the former National Farmers Union president who re-invented himself last autumn as a Liberal.
At a Commons committee meeting this spring, Easter complained that government 1994-95 spending plans for agriculture had been lifted from Conservative plans.
Ever cautious and conciliatory, Goodale counselled patience: “I would want next year’s estimates to very clearly reflect not just in principle but in detail the plan in the (Liberal campaign) red book for agriculture.”
Of course, events won’t await next year’s unveiling of Liberal agricultural spending plans.
In the meantime, Goodale will be directing the effort to deal with a host of issues from supply management to grain transportation and farm income insurance scheme reforms.
What style and vision will be apply to that agenda?
Party organizer MacNiven, who has known and worked with Goodale since 1971, predicts he will apply the same tools of caution, thorough study, methodical planning and hard work that has driven his career so far.
Sticks to his guns
“He will study all sides, be fair, learn as much as he can, talk to people and then decide what he thinks is in the best interests of farmers,” she said. “And once he decides, he will stick to his guns.”
Adds longtime Regina friend Don Black, president of the Investment Corporation of Saskatchewan: “He really is the kind of guy who likes to do the right thing. When he decides what that is, he’s very tough-minded. He is driven by problem-solving.”
He also is the kind of guy who has spent most of his adult life searching for political success, even though his love of politics often has been greater than the voters’ love of him.
“They didn’t always vote for him but no one questioned his integrity or commitment to Saskatchewan,” then-federal Liberal leader John Turner said in 1989 when Goodale seemed to be stepping out of politics after one-too-many defeats.
Last November, the voters of Regina finally gave him at least four years of political job security and a chance to actually implement the political dream he has been pursuing, whatever it is.
