Canadian farm leader Jack Wilkinson is in the Philippines this week, lobbying to become a global farm leader.
The 46-year-old Canadian Federation of Agriculture president is one of three candidates competing to become president of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
The vote at the Manila meeting is scheduled for June 3.
“I think my chances are better than 50-50,” Wilkinson said last week from his northern Ontario farm. “If I can make it through the first ballot, I think I’ll have a good chance.”
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If Wilkinson does move to the world stage, the CFA will elect a new president at its summer semi-annual board meeting in Fredericton. The new president is expected to be Manitoba farmer Bob Friesen.
Wilkinson said his main sales pitch for the job will be that he is an experienced trade policy activist at a time when new world trade talks are about to begin and trade rules will be a key farm issue for the next half decade or more.
He is chair of the IFAP trade committee.
Canadian citizenship could also be a bonus.
His opponents come from the Netherlands and France and he said the majority of the 55 IFAP member countries voting in the election may not be comfortable having a leader from Europe, one of the two main competing trading powers, the other being the United States.
Good negotiator
Wilkinson said he will offer himself as someone capable of finding a middle ground for IFAP between the competing positions at the World Trade Organization.
The last Canadian to hold the IFAP presidency was Glenn Flaten a decade ago.
The Paris-based farm group lobbies for farmer interests at sites as diverse as the WTO in Geneva, the United Nations in New York and other international conferences on social, environmental or economic issues.
However, IFAP does not have the budget to pay a salary and the president is expected to find his own funding sources.
Wilkinson’s first job when he decided to run for the position was to try to line up domestic support worth at least $220,000 annually to pay his expenses and salary.
So far, member organizations of the CFA have pledged more than $120,000 toward Wilkinson’s expenses.
The IFAP presidency is a two-year, renewable term.
At the Manila meeting, each of the 55 delegations will receive one vote.
However, a Canadian delegation of 18 or more is traveling to the IFAP meeting, in part to help Wilkinson lobby other country delegations.
