The most googled website among prairie farm leaders on Feb. 6 probably wasn’t the Super Bowl or the Olympic hockey team.
It was almost certainly chuckstrahl.com, the home page for Canada’s new minister of agriculture.
Chuck Strahl’s appointment took everyone by surprise and left officials scrambling to find out what they could about the man who will oversee the new government’s policy on agriculture and the Canadian Wheat Board.
“He definitely wasn’t on our radar screen at all,” said Ken McBride, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
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Lots of names of potential ministers had been bandied about during and after the election, he said, but Strahl’s was never one of them.
All five farm organization officials interviewed for this story had a similar reaction, saying Strahl’s appointment came out of the blue.
Some expressed surprise that someone with no obvious background or connection with agriculture would be named to the job when so many critical and complex issues are on the table.
Other said it could be positive to come into the job with no strong pre-conceived notions as to what needs to be done.
“Let’s hope he’s a quick study and open-minded and prepared to listen to farmers because he needs to hit the ground running,” said David Rolfe, president of Keystone Agriculture Producers.
There was also disappointment that the new minister, who represents a constituency in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, wasn’t from the Prairies.
“We were certainly looking for someone from the West,” said Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, adding that a number of MPs from Saskatchewan and Alberta took a strong interest in agriculture and CWB issues during their years in opposition.
“I know them very well and they know our views and they would have been up to speed on the issues.”
Nevertheless, she doesn’t expect problems working with Strahl, as long as he is open-minded and willing to listen to all sides on the issues before reaching conclusions.
Rod Scarlett, executive director of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, is unconcerned about Strahl’s lack of agricultural background, saying the most important attribute for a minister in a minority Parliament is knowing how the system works and an ability to work with the other parties and cabinet colleagues to get things done.
“The skill is in managing the portfolio, not being an expert in agriculture.”
He suspects some of the veteran prairie MPs re-elected in Saskatchewan and Alberta were seen as too strident in their views on some agriculture and CWB issues to be a good fit for cabinet.
“In a minority government, having a strong opinion doesn’t necessarily equate into getting things done.”
National Farmers Union spokesperson Terry Pugh said the government needs to move quickly to resolve the farm income crisis and should look to the previous government’s Easter Report recommendations on providing farmers with more power in the marketplace as a good basis for long-term solutions.
While acknowledging that Strahl’s views on agricultural issues probably don’t coincide with the NFU’s, Pugh said it could have been worse.
“At least David Anderson wasn’t named CWB minister,” he said, referring to the Saskatchewan MP who has campaigned hard for an end to the board’s single desk authority.
