CALGARY — When the Reform party’s winds of change began blowing across the Prairies more than two decades ago, farmer Sam Magnus took notice, although he was not an early political adapter.
The grain and cattle producer from Luseland, Sask., had always voted Progressive Conservative, but by the early 1990s he had lost the faith.
“It just seemed the PCs didn’t care about rural Canada or the Prairies,” 55-year-old Magnus said during last weekend’s Conservative Party convention, reflecting on his long journey from simple voter to political activist who has spent countless hours and driven many thousand kilometres in support of the Reform, Alliance and Conservative parties.
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“It seemed to me when I talked to my MP, he was telling me what Ottawa thought we should think.”
In contrast, the nascent Reform party was preaching grassroots power and bottom up decision-making.
“It appealed to me and I switched my vote in 1993 and joined the party a few years later,” he said.
Since then, he has been an organizer and a senior player in the various parties that ended up being the current Conservatives. On Nov. 2, his term as national council member from Saskatchewan ended.
So was the activism and donated time worth it, particularly for his farm? Has the journey from upstart party to opposition and now government really changed anything?
“Absolutely, it has made my farm more profitable by giving me more ability to make my own decisions,” he said. “Not everyone agreed, but getting rid of the wheat board monopoly really has opened up a lot of opportunity, more than we imagined when we campaigned for it. Regulations have been reduced, trade deals open markets and competition for our product helps raise prices. Absolutely it has been worth the journey.”
Magnus argued that just as important a change has been the belief in rural Saskatchewan and on the Prairies that the current government listens. It doesn’t hurt that his MP, Gerry Ritz, is the agriculture minister and that he got to know party leader Stephen Harper during his years as vice-president of the Alliance party.
He has better access to policy makers than the average farmer.
Of course, opponents of the Conservative agenda disagree with Magnus’s analysis, seeing just another government imposing Ottawa-down policies that are not in the interests of the farmer majority.
However, he notes that for the past 20 years, the various iterations of the current government have won the vast majority of rural Prairie seats with strong farmer voting support.
“There will always be critics but I think our success says something.”
Meanwhile, the ascent from political outsiders to government means the Conservatives now are held responsible for their actions and decisions, whether record deficits several years ago or the current Senate expenses uproar that increasingly entangles Harper’s office in the controversy.
Was it more fun being outsiders criticizing?
“Not at all,” he said. “I love being in a position where we are able to make change.”
While he concedes some mid-term fatigue among members, perhaps in part over the Senate issue, Magnus predicted energy and enthusiasm will return as the election gets closer.
“It has been a long trip with lots of hours but when I look back, I wouldn’t have missed it,” he said. “I’ve learned more about politics as teamwork than I ever learned in school.”
