Lyle Vanclief held his last news conference as federal agriculture minister Dec. 11, announcing the national birth of the controversial agricultural policy framework on the eve before prime minister Paul Martin announced a new cabinet.
The launch of the APF was a career highlight, the end of more than six years in office during which Vanclief secured billions of dollars in new funding, reversed many of the budget cuts implemented by former minister Ralph Goodale and yet drew strong criticism from political opponents and many farm leaders as an unsympathetic minister, particularly to Western Canada.
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As he left his last news conference, Vanclief approached senior Agriculture Canada official Doug Hedley, a veteran of the APF wars and previous ministers stretching back a quarter century.
“Thanks for everything,” Vanclief said, 61/2 years to the day since his appointment as Canada’s 28th agriculture minister June 11, 1997.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” replied Hedley as the two veterans of the policy wars shook hands in the aisle of the National Press Theatre.
“He is a good guy,” Hedley said later.
The next morning, on the grounds of Government House as Bob Speller was being sworn in as the 29th agriculture minister, Marc Charbonneau’s cell phone rang.
He is the government driver for the agriculture minister and he was waiting for Speller.
On the phone was Vanclief, thanking his driver for more than six years of service.
“Thank you for everything,” responded the driver emotionally. “I appreciate everything.”
Later, Charbonneau said Vanclief had been a good employer. “He is a great guy.”
As Vanclief left after being one of Canada’s longest-serving agriculture ministers, his reviews naturally were mixed. Still, for someone who navigated through a series of calamities and turned on government money taps in a way they had not been turned on in years, Vanclief received precious little praise.
He was remembered for winning government spending and commitments of more than $8 billion, including the first five-year funding and policy commitment ever.
He inherited a departmental budget ravaged by previous cuts orchestrated by finance minister Paul Martin in 1995-96. Vanclief had to deal with the fallout from the 1996 American farm bill, high international subsidies, low grain prices, the collapse of hog prices in 1998, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, world trade talks and controversy over genetically modified crops.
“He really was dealt a difficult hand on a number of files,” said Ontario producer Ken Bee, president of the Grain Growers of Canada and a critic of the APF design pushed by Vanclief. “I think he tried his hardest to make a difference for Canadian agriculture. He was always straightforward.”
Laurent Souligny, president of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, said Vanclief was a friend of the supply-managed sector.
“He was a guy who was dedicated to the industry and I think from supply management’s point of view, he was a good minister.”
But even his supporters in the industry said his good works, including the five-year APF, often were overlooked because of his personal relations with industry players.
“Sometimes he would get defensive very quickly and that hurt his image,” said Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett. “He appeared inflexible.”
Others thought he was too dominated by his bureaucrats and too weak to fight in cabinet.
New Democrat critic Dick Proctor said Vanclief “seemed to have something about Saskatchewan” that made him hostile to the province. The feeling was reciprocal.
Saskatchewan Canadian Alliance agriculture critic Gerry Ritz said the Vanclief years were a disaster for agriculture and the West.
Asked if there were no positive things to be said about the era of the departing minister, Ritz said: “It’s over.”
The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation calculates that Vanclief will be eligible for a pension of between $106,000 and $118,000 when he leaves Parliament at the next election.
