Former Manitoba farmer and farm leader Larry Maguire, recently elected Brandon-Souris Conservative MP, made his debut in the House of Commons Monday with a rare first-day question.
He asked a friendly question to his government about the recently announced livestock price insurance program.
“Pork and cattle producers in southwestern Manitoba have been calling for a timely and responsive program to help protect them when commodity prices go down,” said Maguire Jan. 27.
Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, was happy to report that an Alberta pilot project on livestock price insurance is being expanded on the Prairies to applause from the cattle industry.
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“The constituents of Brandon-Souris can rest assured that under our prime minister, we will continue to give farmers the tools they need to grow jobs and strengthen our economy,” said the eastern Ontario MP.
Earlier in the day when Parliament returned to work after a six-week Christmas break, Maguire was sworn in as an MP and introduced to the House.
After almost 14 years as a provincial Progressive Conservative MLA, Maguire barely hung on in a late 2013 byelection to win the traditionally Conservative Brandon seat for the party.
He was president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association for four years in the 1990s, a Canadian Wheat Board monopoly opponent but an elected member of the CWB advisory committee for seven years in the 1980s and 1990s and a member of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
Maguire also was an executive member of the Canada Grains Council.
He is one of two alumni of the WCWGA in the House of Commons. Prince Albert, Sask., MP Randy Hoback is a former chair of the group.
