OTTAWA — Bloc QuŽbecois agriculture spokesman Jean-Paul Marchand has angered Liberal MPs by calling Ralph Goodale the latest in a long string of weak Canadian agriculture ministers.
“In spite of the fact that the minister of agriculture for Canada is a very kind and well-spoken lawyer and not a farmer, I am beginning to think we have a rather wishy-washy minister of agriculture because in the great tradition of ministers of agriculture for Canada, he is unable to say no to Americans,” Marchand said recently in the Commons.
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He said the Canadian government is being weak in negotiating with the Americans on grain trade and supply management tariffs. And it was weak in efforts at recent world trade talks to save rules needed to operate supply management.
In dealing with the Americans, said Marchand in his first Commons speech as agriculture spokesman for the official Opposition, “once again Canada is on its knees.”
He recalled several years in the 1970s working for Eugene Whelan: “Mr. Whelan was a great minister, maybe even the most important agriculture minister in the history of Canada and even he had a hard time convincing his colleagues of the importance of this industry.”
Marchand said, “Canada has never had a constructive vision for that sector.”
The comments brought Liberal chastisement for the rookie MP.
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Ontario MP Bob Speller reminded him that BQ leader Lucien Bouchard once sat in the Conservative cabinet that created the trade policy and many of the flawed farm programs the Liberals inherited.
Saskatoon-Dundurn MP Morris Bodnar came to Goodale’s defence.
“(Marchand) commented about the agriculture minister being a lawyer but not a farmer,” he said. “I am a lawyer too, I am also from a farm and I also own land. The agriculture minister is also from a farm. He understands Saskatchewan farm practices. He understands the agriculture industry in Canada.”
Even former National Farmers Union president and now novice Liberal MP Wayne Easter came to the government’s defence.
His former organization has condemned the Liberals and Goodale for cutting a GATT deal that lost some supply management protections. But Easter advised patience as the government works to set high protective tariffs.
“The government is committed to agriculture,” he said. “It is committed to the supply management system. It is committed to the Canadian Wheat Board. This government offers hope for the future.”
