OKOTOKS, Alta. -The farmer question in Saskatchewan and Manitoba this election has been: why have campaigning politicians not been listening to our complaints?
The question in Alberta is: what farmer complaints?
“I do hear from some farmers about the wheat board or AIDA (Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance),” Macleod riding Canadian Alliance incumbent Grant Hill said Nov. 16.
“But they are quiet, generally. They know where the Alliance stands. They don’t think they will get anything from this government no matter what they say.”
Hill said farmers in his southwestern Alberta riding are independent, have diversified and often work off-farm. They do not see politicians as the solution to their income problems.
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“There’s lots of work in Alberta,” he said. “They see this as something they can survive. Few see grain as their main hope.”
In the northeastern riding of Lakeland, CA incumbent Leon Benoit said he hears from farmers directly but not as part of a public debate.
“They are just resigned to getting nothing now so they don’t say much,” he said.
In Medicine Hat, the campaign manager for MP Monte Solberg also noted the general lack of comment from farmers.
“There have been a few queries about the problems with the support program, but nothing much,” Cathy Smith said.
Does that mean Alberta farmers do not have the same farm policy concerns that have driven farmers elsewhere in the Prairies and in Ontario to demand political promises during the election?
Canadian Alliance candidates suggest it reflects an independent spirit in Alberta farmers, as well as a conviction that existing political alignments offer little hope of help.
Roger Epp, chair of the history, sociology and politics division at Augustana University College in Camrose, Alta., has a different view.
Alberta farmers have developed a culture of keeping quiet and looking to their provincial government for help, he said.
“It is the history of Alberta farmers since the 1930s that they have learned to shut u-10-P. They look to the province or themselves for help, but feel resentment toward Ottawa for not doing more.”
