KITCHENER, Ont. – Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day is promising farmers that his party will “be there” when they need help.
As he unveiled the party’s election platform amid growing speculation about a Nov. 27 election, Day promised to fund safety net programs, end the Canadian Wheat Board marketing monopoly and protect supply managed farmers as long as other countries support their own farmers.
And in a speech to a packed Kitchener arena Oct. 5, he drew loud applause from a largely urban audience by promising to help farmers when they need help.
Read Also
Agri-business and farms front and centre for Alberta’s Open Farm Days
Open Farm Days continues to enjoy success in its 14th year running, as Alberta farms and agri-businesses were showcased to increase awareness on how food gets to the dinner plate.
“We need to be there for family farms at times of disaster,” he said. “We need to be there.”
The Alliance platform did not offer specific money or support commitments.
However, in its sections on rural and farm issues, the party promised to:
- End the wheat board’s single desk monopoly on exports of wheat and barley and domestic sales for human consumption.
“Give grain farmers freedom to make their own marketing choices,” it said.
- Support safety nets, including emergency disaster aid and support for crop insurance and the Net Income Stabilization Account program.
- Aggressively fight foreign agriculture subsidies.
- Commercialize grain transportation by getting the wheat board out of the system.
- Cut the federal excise tax on farm diesel fuel to two cents per litre from four cents.
After years of being seen as an opponent of protectionist supply management, the Canadian Alliance has softened its position.
The platform repeated the view that by signing the tariff-reducing 1993 world trade deal, the Liberals signed a death warrant for supply management.
Still, the party promised to do what it can to preserve the system.
A CA government would only reduce protective dairy and poultry tariffs and change domestic support policies “when other countries match our commitments and provide guaranteed access to foreign markets.”
The party also promised supply management farmers “a fair transition period for any changes.”
The Alliance said a changing agricultural sector needs a government with a vision both domestic and international.
“Farmers have always contributed significantly to the economic and social well-being of Canadians.”
The party promised farm families thousands of dollars of benefits each year from lower personal taxes.
It said an Alliance-driven endangered species act would provide for local stewardship programs and consensus but where intervention was necessary to preserve critical habitat, there would be “fair market-value compensation.”
And it promised to repeal existing gun registration laws with “a practical firearms control system that is cost effective and respects the rights of Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly.”
The Alliance vowed to abolish the Liberals’ western economic diversification department if elected, preferring to encourage regional development through lower taxes and less regulation on business.
