By Barry Wilson
Ottawa bureau
A farmer from Allan, Sask., has been elected the 9th president in the 40-year history of the National Farmers Union.
Terry Boehm, 51, has previously sat as vice-president of the organization.
In an interview after his Nov. 27 election, he said he will continue to pursue issues that have motivated the union through its history.
“Our priorities are what they have always been and we need to fight to turn around this train that is pushing farmers off the land,” he said. “We’re witnessing the full extent of what we imagined 40 years ago and now we really have to recognize that we can only see one result from the policies that now are being enacted and that is further difficulties for Canadian family farmers and in fact for Canadian society.”
Boehm said with the collapse of the hog industry, it is time to discuss if there are better models including supply management.
“I think we are seeing the folly that we can trade ourselves out of trouble in an industry so dominated by a few corporate players.”
Boehm won the presidency by defeating New Brunswick farmer Jean-Eudes Chaisson by a count of 71-29. It was the first contested NFU election in years.
He replaces Swift Current, Sask., farmer Stewart Wells, who stepped down at the 40th NFU convention after eight years as president.
Boehm is a grain and oilseed farmer.
He also spends several months a year in France where his wife and child live.
He said he will continue to do that.
“The NFU is not the president,” he said. “It is all the other officers and the membership. I may change how long I am away at a time but I don’t think that will be a problem. Past presidents also travelled abroad.”
