Western Producer staff
If an agriculture debate breaks out in Parliament and voters back on the farm never hear about it, did it really happen?
For Prairie rural MPs, it is anything but a silly question. It is a situation they face regularly. For example, in the past month, the House of Commons has devoted two full days to agricultural issues.
The debates did not produce earth-shattering news but they offered interesting insight into the shape of the agricultural debate to come during the next four years and the policy options facing voters.
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In late April, the Bloc QuŽbecois devoted one of its Opposition days to the issue. Dozens of MPs spoke and the BQ laid out its strategy for winning Quebec farmers to the cause of separation.
In early May, the Liberal government called an all-day debate and Reform used it to enunciate its agricultural policy while the Bloc continued to hammer at what it sees as a Prairie bias in federal farm policy. The Liberals laid out government strategy.
Outside the specialized farm press, there was almost no coverage. Radio and television ignored the spectacle of dozens of MPs talking about farm income, ethanol, grain transportation, the Wheat Board, subsidies and farm safety. The Canadian Press, which supplies Ottawa stories to almost all newspapers in Canada, did not file a story.
Thomson News sent one story out on a speech by agriculture minister Ralph Goodale. That was it.
Unless government leaders make a dramatic statement, or very topical issues like dairy herd growth hormones or trade wars are under discussion, mainstream media carry almost no agricultural stories from Parliament and Ottawa.
Debates rarely receive coverage. The bombast and allegations of Question Period are the fodder for most parliamentary reporting.
“Our agricultural presence here does not receive fair, or adequate, play,” says Bernie Collins, a southern Saskatchewan Liberal. “It is a sad commentary.”
Adds Reform Party House leader and rural MP Elwin Hermanson: “We don’t get a whole lot of coverage when we talk about agriculture here. It’s a shame.”
These MPs and others from the Prairies resort to constituency newsletters, householders and weekend interviews with hometown reporters to let their voters know they are talking about agriculture in Ottawa.
The reasons for this media silence are many but the essential reasons are easily stated. Most urban media consider agriculture coverage a non-starter and few Prairie media outlets that serve farm audiences now have reporters in Ottawa.
During the past half decade, CBC has dropped its Ottawa agricultural reporter while the Calgary Herald and Saskatoon StarPhoenix/Regina LeaderPost have pulled their permanent Ottawa correspondents.
Of the Prairie daily newspapers, only the Edmonton Journal and Winnipeg Free Press maintain offices here and agriculture coverage is not high on the agenda.
Prairie MPs report that their rural constituents sometimes complain they are not paying attention to farm issues in Ottawa. Their answer is: just because it isn’t in the daily press doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.