Stockwell Day started his tenure as international trade minister last week with the assertion that his appointment was meant to make a statement to the world.
“We are a trading nation,” he told reporters outside Government House Oct. 30 moments after being shuffled from the high profile public safety portfolio to trade. “Our prosperity depends on our ability to trade and to trade freely and that’s a point the prime minister wants made.”
Trade-dependent agricultural leaders quickly took the message and ran with it.
“I think appointing such a senior minister to trade does send the right message,” said Alberta cattle producer Darcy Davis, president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA).
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“For the government trying to steer through economic turbulence, trade is a highly important issue and vehicle these days.”
At Dawson Creek, B.C., Grain Growers of Canada president Ross Ravelli said he was excited about Day’s appointment “if I’m allowed to get excited about anything in politics.”
He said Day is seen as a player with significant clout within the Stephen Harper government.
“Mr. Day has a history of being a free marketer,” Ravelli said. “He is a high profile minister and we need a minister like that to get something going on trade negotiations.”
In southern Ontario, Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Ron Bonnett said it would be premature to speculate on the agenda the new minister brings because he has not yet talked to Day about it.
“But I think this appointment does send the message that it is a priority for the government,” Bonnett said. “We will want to meet him to reinforce our support for the government’s position at the WTO (World Trade Organization).”
If he doesn’t already understand it, the new minister soon will be well exposed to the divisions in Canadian agriculture over appropriate trade policy.
Davis said CAFTA leaders will try to arrange an early meeting to urge the government to pursue an “ambitious” outcome in the WTO Doha Round negotiation. By that, CAFTA means the government should be willing to compromise on high protective tariffs around supply managed sectors in return for better access for Canadian exporters.
At Dairy Farmers of Canada, president Jacques Laforge issued a statement indicating that they too will be walking to Parliament Hill to let members of the new cabinet know how important it is that the dairy industry not lose its protection.
Day, 58, once an Alberta pastor and administrator of a private Christian school before becoming Alberta’s provincial treasurer, now represents an Okanagan, B.C., riding.
He was briefly leader of the Canadian Alliance after defeating Preston Manning in a leadership race for the new party.
His leadership term was contentious, the Alliance caucus split and in 2000, he ran a disastrous national election campaign that included standing in front of Niagara Falls, where the American Niagara River crashes into Canada, to suggest that like the river, Canadians were heading south because of Liberal policy.
