As Conservative MPs sat in their Parliament Hill caucus room March 22 holding their first meeting since Stephen Harper won the party’s leadership race March 20, Harper leaned over to ask agriculture critic Gerry Ritz back to his office for a chat.
At noon, the two met to talk about agriculture policy and strategy.
Ritz said later it was a clear signal that the new leader plans to make agricultural interests a party priority.
“Absolutely, that is the message,” said the Saskatchewan MP. “Of course we have kept it in focus all along but it will certainly be a priority. We have always remembered our roots, which are agricultural and rural. There is a crisis and the government is not responding.”
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In fact, now that the new party has been formed and the leadership race is over, several prairie MPs said they hope to direct more attention to criticizing the government over policy failures in areas such as agriculture.
“There is so much happening and the Liberals are giving us so many issues to go after, it hasn’t always been easy getting agriculture on the agenda,” Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson said in an interview during the March 20 leadership convention in Toronto. “Once this leadership issue is resolved and the party can move forward, I think we will be able to push harder on issues like BSE and the farm income crisis.”
“We will be taking a lead on this,” added Lethbridge MP Rick Casson.
Harper indicated to reporters after winning the leadership that he will press the government both on improving relations with the United States to help get the border open and on providing enough support to help farmers survive until that happens.
Meanwhile, deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay last week circulated to MPs an updated version of a policy document that the party will use if an early election is called. Harper said it will not be officially released until revisions are finished.
However, according to the draft text, it supports safety net program support for farmers as long as the program does not distort trade or violate trade deals. It calls for an end to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly.
And it offers support for the “goal” of supply management – “delivering a high quality product to consumers for a fair price with a reasonable return to the producer.”
Ritz said the policy represents a strong party endorsement of supply management as a system that serves the market and returns a fair share of the food dollar to producers.
He said the Liberal decision in 1995 to support conversion of supply management protections to high tariffs marked “the beginning of the end” for supply management because tariffs are likely to fall in future.
But he said a Conservative government will “fight tooth and nail to maintain the system we have as long as we can.” Then, if the end inevitably comes, the party will offer what support it can during the transition out of supply management to keep dairy, poultry and egg sectors viable.
“This is a good program that deserves our support,” said the MP.
