THE ELECTION dust has settled. A New Democratic government celebrates in Manitoba while a chastened NDP clings to power in Saskatchewan.
The first inclination for campaign-weary politicians might be to pause and reflect on the electoral battle, or in the case of the Saskatchewan NDP, to find ways to make a minority government work.
But this is no time to retreat to the backrooms.
The election results in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where the vast majority of agricultural ridings did not vote for the government, indicate rural people have different concerns than the rest of the population.
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Those results are given texture by an Angus Reid opinion poll that showed a surprising percentage of farmers are considering throwing in the towel.
It is clear that in the heartland of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, many are frustrated, dispirited and alienated.
Their concerns must not be ignored.
There is a move afoot to have western provincial party leaders accom-pany a delegation of farmers to Ottawa to press for more financial aid and a commitment to fight hard in trade talks to end international grain export subsidies.
A non-partisan exercise by Saskatch-ewan, Manitoba and Alberta, is needed.
But not all the responsibility rests on Ottawa’s doorstep. Action must be taken at the provincial level.
Manitoba’s Gary Doer is already committed to a fall sitting of the legislature, partly to address agriculture issues.
But Roy Romanow, in Saskatchewan where the situation is most grave, is resisting pressure for a fall session.
This is a strange reaction from the premier who on election night said: “I have heard you and all of Canada has heard you and we shall act …”
Rural citizens would see a silent legislature during a time of crisis as a sign of uncaring arrogance.
A provincial government has options to address rural needs. The education portion of the property tax, an inequity that has caused taxpayers in several Saskatchewan rural municipalities to withhold their taxes in protest, is an issue completely in the power of a province to change.
Another option is an agricultural strategy similar to what Alberta has established. It would be a multi-year plan for agriculture to encourage value-added processing. It should identify impediments to growth in taxation, regulation, infrastructure and capital and provide strategies to overcome them. It should set goals against which to measure progress. And a key measurement must be the direct benefit to primary producers.
The Angus Reid poll said 46 percent of prairie farmers might leave the farm.
Messieurs Romanow and Doer, you must give them hope that it is worth hanging on.
