Federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has named Ontario MP Lianne Rood as agriculture critic.
She represents Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and replaces John Barlow from Alberta.
Rood has a varied background that includes politics and small business as well as farming. She grew up on a 1,000-acre vegetable farm, obtained a degree in criminology and sociology, and worked for the Stephen Harper government for six years.
She worked with then-agriculture minister Gerry Ritz to develop the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act that ended the Canadian Wheat Board export monopoly. She also worked for MPs Bev Shipley and David Anderson, who both had agricultural ties.
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Other key appointments to the shadow cabinet include: B.C. MPs Dan Albas as environment and climate change critic and Tracy Gray to export promotion and internal trade; Alberta MPs Pat Kelly to small business and Western Economic Diversification, Stephanie Kusie to transport and Michelle Rempel Garner to health; former leader Andrew Scheer to infrastructure and communities and rookie Saskatchewan MP Warren Steinley to economic development and internal trade; and Manitoba MP James Bezan to national defence.
I am honoured to serve as Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food for the Official Opposition, and I look forward to continue working with members of the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector.
Press release: https://t.co/EYYTDBL1nC pic.twitter.com/B0uIyGUKPy
— Lianne Rood (@Lianne_Rood) September 8, 2020
From Eastern Canada, former agriculture critic Luc Berthold from Quebec will critique treasury board, Pierre Poilievre takes on finance, and John Nater from Ontario is the critic for rural economic development.
The full list can be found at conservative.ca.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
