No training wheels, please.
If Canadian farm leaders have one message for prime minister Paul Martin as he tries to decide who will be his next agriculture minister, it is that he should appoint someone who knows the files.
“I really think we need someone who has knowledge of the issues and is prepared to hit the ground running,” said David Rolfe, president of Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers. “This is no time for inexperience at the top. There are too many issues at play.”
Dresden, Ont., grain producer Ken Bee, president of Grain Growers of Canada, said it is less important where the new agriculture minister comes from and more important that he or she has some experience.
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“I hope the new minister at least has an understanding of agriculture and some experience and is not starting from scratch,” he said.
Martin, re-elected June 28 with a minority government, was handed the task of finding a new agriculture minister after Bob Speller was one of six ministers to lose their seats.
Speller, in his more than six months on the job, had won generally positive reviews from industry as he promised to listen more, to be farmer-friendly and to be an active minister.
“I think the industry is shocked that Bob Speller will not be the minister,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said from his farm in Wawanesa, Man. “He had made great strides in repairing the divisions and strains that had developed between the industry and the department in the previous few years.”
But unless Martin appointed Speller to the Senate to bring him back to cabinet, the former southern Ontario MP is not available and the prime minister’s choices are limited by the defeat of a number of rural Liberal MPs in Ontario and the failure of a single rural western Liberal to win a seat.
Speculation on the new minister has ranged from urban Edmonton MP David Kilgour, a veteran MP with little history of agricultural involvement, to Indian affairs minister and former rural minister Andy Mitchell from Ontario, Prince Edward Island’s Wayne Easter, Nova Scotia’s Mark Eyking and New Brunswick’s Andy Savoie, who represents a farm riding and is a former chair of the Liberal rural caucus.
“I don’t have any candidates and I wouldn’t preclude an urban MP who has an interest in the food production system, but for qualifications, I would look for someone who has a genuine background in agricultural or food issues,” said Ontario cow-calf producer and feedlot owner Stan Eby, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. “I think it is very important that the person has a national perspective.”
Friesen said the new minister will have to assert himself quickly with issues such as an imminent decision at the World Trade Organization negotiation on a framework for a final deal, an impending review of the federal agricultural policy framework and the continuing BSE crisis and closed borders to live cattle.
The need for ministerial experience is compounded by the fact that deputy agriculture minister Len Edwards also is new to the job and the issues, except for any overlap from his former job as deputy trade minister.
“We will work with whoever is appointed to get them up to speed, but the issues are imminent and urgent and there will not be time for a long learning curve,” said Friesen.
