When Bob Friesen was introduced as the Liberal candidate in a Winnipeg riding for the Oct. 14 election, it ended a long run of farm politics for the second-longest serving president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
The former hog and turkey farmer from Wawanesa, Man., served as CFA president for almost a decade.
Only Herb Hannam, an Ontario teacher and farm magazine editor, held the position longer, beginning in 1939 and extending into the 1950s.
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Friesen, who tried to win a Liberal nomination in 2004 but failed, was confirmed Sept. 8 as the candidate in Winnipeg’s Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia riding once held by Manitoba lieutenant governor and former Liberal agriculture critic John Harvard.
Conservative Steven Fletcher won the seat for the second time in 2006 by more than 4,500 votes.
Friesen, 53, sold his farm co-owned with a brother last year and plans to move to Winnipeg.
He began his first political campaign with an attack on agriculture minister Gerry Ritz.
“Like many people in Canada’s farming community, I’ve been very disappointed by the Conservative government’s agricultural policies,” he said.
The west end riding extends into the countryside to give rural residents 20 percent of the votes.
In an interview Sept. 5, Friesen was asked about an appearance by Ritz at the CFA annual meeting last winter. Ritz said the CFA, Canada’s largest farm lobby, was not an organization he listened to on the Canadian Wheat Board issue because it opposed the government’s tactics.
“The agriculture industry and every other sector in Canada simply considers it unacceptable for a government to say ‘this is what we’re going to do and if anyone gets in the way, they will be walked on,’ ” said Friesen.
His entry into politics brought thanks from former CFA colleagues, praise from Liberal leader Stephane Dion and an attack from Manitoba Conservative MP James Bezan.
Friesen said his time leading the national farm lobby was “the best job in the world” but it was time to move on. He listed work on a safety nets position and a balanced trade position that successive governments adopted as achievements of his CFA years. A failure to find policies that would help make all agricultural sectors profitable was a regret.
“We can’t seem to find a formula that will have all of agriculture prospering,” he said. “We went through a period of excruciating grain incomes and now we have a period of excruciating livestock incomes.”
Remaining CFA leaders praised Friesen for his work.
Vice-president Ron Bonnett from Ontario, a likely successor, said his leadership will be missed.
“While Bob would be the first to point out that no one person is the organization, he has certainly embodied the passion of the CFA and its members,” Bonnett said.
Dion said Friesen would bring the same passion and dedication to his work as an MP as he did to the CFA presidency.
But Conservative MP Bezan, the usually even-handed chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee, greeted Friesen with an attack on the Liberal Green Shift plan.
In a statement issued by the Conservative party, Bezan said the fact the Liberals parachuted Friesen into an urban riding shows just how toxic the Liberal carbon tax proposal is in rural Canada.
A new CFA president will be elected in February.
In the meantime, CFA vice-presidents Bonnett and Quebec’s Laurent Pellerin will split the leadership duties.
