Ontario tobacco farmers were outraged when federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz told them the government would offer no new money to help them get out of the business.
Producers and their supporters are now vowing to work to defeat immigration minister Diane Finley, the local Conservative MP who defeated former Liberal agriculture minister Bob Speller in 2004 in part on a promise that Conservatives would be more supportive of the industry.
Tobacco producers also staged a public protest April 3 in front of Finley’s constituency office at Simcoe, Ont., ripping up Conservative party membership cards and Finley campaign signs and then marching to the office of Liberal candidate Eric Hoskins to sign up with that party.
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The chair of the Tillsonburg-based Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board pronounced himself disgusted by the Conservative performance.
“We are extremely angry and disgusted,” Tom McElhone said.
“We think the government is being irresponsible.”
The tobacco board has been promoting a quota buyout scheme, funded by a tax on tobacco product sales, that would pay the estimated 1,500 quota holders (fewer than 800 of whom still produce) to leave the industry and end more than 50 years of commercial tobacco production in Canada.
The government has said the proposal would cost as much as $1 billion and is far too rich. Ritz had earlier warned that the government does not spend money on quota buyouts.
