LEDUC, Alta. – Six months ago when it looked like prime minister Paul Martin would easily win the 2004 election, even cowboys in conservative Alberta were contemplating voting Liberal for the first time.
Since then, the $100 million sponsorship scandal has blown away most emerging support for Liberals in cattle country. But there are still producers who believe the Liberals will form the next government and that there’s a need to have an agricultural voice at the table.
“That’s why I jumped in,” said Rick Bonnett, a feedlot operator running as a Liberal in the central Alberta riding of Wetaskawin.
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“I want to be inside of government rather than opposition.”
He said western views are needed inside government.
“They don’t understand what’s going on out here because they don’t have anybody out here.”
He said he’s talked to Martin three or four times, always about BSE.
Like other producers across Canada, Bonnett and his family have been hit hard by the discovery of BSE in Canada. Their 30,000 head capacity feedlot outside Ponoka now holds 17,000 head and the family is struggling to keep going.
Other producers in the riding are attracted by that direct connection to agriculture and the fact Bonnett has taken a hit from BSE.
“He’s speaking from the bottom of the trenches,” said Everett Simanton, a Ponoka dairy farmer.
“Nobody’s been beaten up worse in the past year than beef feedlots.”
However, Simanton said it would be a stretch for him to vote Liberal.
“I think you’re going to have to sell yourself,” Simanton told Bonnett at a recent meeting of the Canadian Dairy Congress in Leduc, Alta.
“I don’t think you’ll sell the Liberals to me.”
Blair Vold, owner of one of Alberta’s largest auction markets, Vold, Jones and Vold Auction Co., shares that sentiment.
He said he’s supporting Bonnett because he wants a cattle producer in government.
“I probably wouldn’t be openly supporting Liberals, but I’m openly supporting Rick Bonnet because he’s a cattle person.”
Jones said he also wants to elect an MP who knows how serious a problem BSE has been in Western Canada.
“We’ve had great representation before by (Conservative MP) Dale Johnson, but as far as getting anything done, his hands are tied.”
He is also impressed with Martin’s interest in the cattle business.
“I met Paul Martin personally in the fall and he impressed me more so than I had ever been by a Liberal. That’s another reason I’m going with the Liberals and Rick.”
Ken Nicol, the Liberal candidate in Lethbridge and former Alberta Liberal leader said he’s also seeing a desire to have representation on the winning side.
But not everyone sees it that way.
Six months ago Ron Axelson, general manager of the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, tossed out the idea to a group of cattle producers that they swallow their pride and vote Liberal to get on the government side.
“I had to dive for cover,” said Axelson, who added the reaction was so violent he never brought up the idea again.
Maybe there is too much history and baggage with the Liberal party to switch allegiances even to help get on the winning side, he said.
