MARGARET, Man. – Bill Morrow swings his Belarus tractor into a bale yard to load feed for his sheep.
He parks the tractor and hops down from the cab to chat briefly with a visitor about the federal election.
Morrow lives in the Brandon-Souris riding, a federal constituency in the southwestern corner of Manitoba. It relies heavily on agriculture.
Morrow, a livestock and grain producer, has six candidates to choose from. On this day he is still undecided about which one will best represent agriculture.
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He knows that farmers are a small fraction of the electorate in the national scheme of things. Even as he ponders who to vote for locally, he questions what relevance it will have nationally.
“The party that ends up in control doesn’t depend on agriculture for any support,” he said.
“Because of that they don’t give us much support.”
Canadian Alliance candidate Gary Nestibo is the only farmer seeking election in this riding. Morrow is favoring him.
Progressive Conservative incumbent Rick Borotsik is a “good man” who worked hard for his constituents, Morrow said.
But Borotsik, who gained prominence as Tory agriculture critic, represents a party that lags in the polls nationally.
Also in Morrow’s mind is the question of whether he should vote for Liberal candidate Dick Scott in case the Liberals again hold power.
“If you did have a Liberal member you might get something (for agriculture).”
Later that same day, constituents converge on the Legion Hall at Virden, Man., for an all-candidates forum.
The majority of them are farmers, but judging by the amount of grey hair in the crowd, few of them are young.
Health care is mentioned once. The focus is on farming.
The farm-based audience soon hears Liberal, Conservative and NDP candidates promise that their parties will increase spending for agriculture.
With the high levels of subsidies to farmers in the United States and the European Union, Canada has no choice but to raise its support for farmers here, Borotsik said.
“The chance of negotiating out those subsidies (in the U.S. and EU) is slim to none. We have to compete with our treasury.”
The gap between the candidates’ views widens when the Canadian Wheat Board is discussed.
Nestibo favors a voluntary marketing system for grain growers. Producers need more marketing choices to better compete globally, he said. He argues that the lack of choices has hindered the development of value-added processing in Manitoba.
Scott said the wheat board’s direction should be decided by the farming community through the farmer directors elected to the board.
Borotsik wants the question of the wheat board’s monopoly put to Western Canadian farmers so they can decide whether the monopoly stays or is removed.
Gun control also gets talked about, but one of the thorniest issues for this riding surfaces only later in the forum.
Farmers here feel they were not fairly compensated for the disastrous effects of excess moisture in the spring of 1998. The glut of moisture kept many from seeding a crop while others were able to seed only a portion of their land.
Producer Don Hamilton asks for a commitment from the candidates that they will push for compensation similar to what farmers in the Red River Valley got following the flood of 1997.
“If this was a just society, something would have been done a long time ago.”
Scott’s reply seems to point the blame for inaction at Borotsik.
“You’re asking the wrong person,” the Liberal candidate said. “I wasn’t in power at that time.”
His comments draw a sharp reply from Borotsik. It is one of the rare heated moments during the forum. The Tory candidate charges that agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief had a similar problem this year with excess moisture in his riding but did nothing to help farmers there.
“The Liberals don’t care about farming. They don’t care about agriculture.”
Nestibo, who farms in one of the areas worst affected by last year’s excess moisture, said he would lobby for fair compensation.
After hearing the views of the candidates, Brandon-area farmer Murray McCallum remains undecided about who to vote for.
“Usually I make that decision as I walk into the poll.”
McCallum, a grain and cattle producer, went to the forum hoping to hear someone talk about a long-term vision for agriculture in Western Canada. He feels the absence of that vision has been a curse to farmers here.
“Does our federal government want agriculture in Western Canada? If they don’t, we’re just banging our heads against the wall.”
Brandon University political science professor Meir Serfaty said he sees a three-way race unfolding in Brandon-Souris.
As of Nov. 17, Serfaty knew of no polls indicating who the front runner is in the riding. He would not venture a guess as to who would win.
“I have absolutely no idea. I call it a three-sided coin here.”
Brandon holds about half the votes in the riding. The other half are in rural areas.
In Brandon, the main contest is between the Liberal and Conservative candidates, Serfaty said. But outside Brandon, the Alliance and Conservative candidates are dominant.
Serfaty said the Liberals and Conservatives are viewed by voters as moderate parties while the Alliance is considered “a more radical alternative.”
“That’s the perception people have.”
There’s the potential, Serfaty said, for the moderate vote to split between Scott and Borotsik, giving Nestibo the win on election day.
But there is another wildcard that could come into play.
“The big question in this election here is whether the Conservative vote is solid or whether it will go Liberal to prevent the Alliance from winning the seat,” he said.
“The Alliance is a different party. It’s viewed as different by much of the electorate and some people feel very uncomfortable with it.”
