Some of the toughest and most pointed agricultural questions election candidates are facing come from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Like many farm organizations across the country, the CCA is intervening to try to force campaigning politicians into specific commitments.
In Ontario, for example, all candidates have been sent an Ontario Federation of Agriculture three-point form to sign a “commitment to agriculture” that includes increased immediate help for farmers, flexibility in national rules that allow help to be delivered in the most appropriate way for regions and sectors and a promise to rewrite the agricultural policy framework.
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The OFA said it will let farmers know which candidates have signed the pledge and which have not.
The CCA is taking a similar approach nationally.
Each of the party leaders has received a copy of a letter that requests answers to some thorny trade and policy questions. Answers, if any, will be posted on the CCA website.
“These are questions that our industry needs answers to,” association president Stan Eby said. “Election comments often are pretty vague and open to interpretation. We want clear answers to clear questions.”
Some of them demand specific answers on delicate questions that politicians might prefer to avoid.
For example, the letter says supply management sectors insist Canadian trade negotiators walk away from the World Trade Organization bargaining table if there are to be any cuts in over-quota tariffs that can reach levels as high as 300 percent. “What is your party’s position on protecting supply management at all costs and potentially abandoning improved market access for beef?” it asks.
On the issue of recently imposed duties on imports of American corn, the CCA asks what each party would do to “ensure Canadian users of unprocessed grain corn are on equal footing with U.S. counterparts?”
The CCA asks for specific pledges on pursuing a more open U.S. market for Canadian beef and on ending Canadian beef trade barriers such as “unjustified” bluetongue testing on imports. There are questions about strategy to get more beef into Japanese and Korean markets.
It demands answers on whether the CCA would be included in consultations on future changes to farm income support policies.
It tries to pin politicians down on the touchy issue of how much BSE testing should be done in future.
“If faced with the possibility of exporting more beef to international markets if it has been tested for BSE, would your party support following this scientifically unjustified approach?”
Cattle producers are waiting for the answers to what often are loaded questions.
