Manitoba Reform MP and deputy agriculture critic Jake Hoeppner is considering leaving the party by resigning his seat or sitting as an independent MP.
He said in an interview that part of the problem is his deteriorating health, made worse by frustration over caucus bickering and Reform’s refusal to give agricultural issues enough attention in Parliament, even though it represents most western Canadian farmers.
“If I go back (as a Reform MP), one of the demands I will make is that agriculture gets its fair share of representation,” he said Sept. 10 from his constituency office. “Otherwise, I’d be just as well to represent agriculture as an independent.”
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Hoeppner said Reform’s low priority for agriculture was also a frustration for previous agriculture critics Elwin Hermanson and Jay Hill.
“And I have had questions on the Canadian Wheat Board but they never seem to have a slot for them,” he said. “Why? I wish you could answer that question because I can’t. Without agriculture, Western Canada would be a basket case.”
Hoeppner, who had a heart bypass operation last year, said his health is deteriorating and doctors have told him to reduce his stress level. It makes him want to resign, but the party is afraid of a byelection it could lose.
“I think the best option for me right now would be to resign,” said Hoeppner, a 62-year-old retired farmer and two-term MP. “I’m at retirement age. But my executive yesterday, and I think the national people will take the same view, said it would mean a byelection and we just don’t want to lose another seat right now. Reform popularity isn’t where it should be.”
In 1997, Hoeppner defeated high-profile Conservative candidate, and now PC leadership candidate, Brian Pallister by almost 1,500 votes in the Portage-Lisgar riding.
Last week, when the MP heard a national caucus meeting in Banff would be used to discipline MPs who decided during the summer to join the MP pension plan, he decided to boycott the meeting and stay on his farm.
“We are supposed to be independent and answerable to our constituents, not caucus leaders,” he complained. “I won’t put up with that kind of politics. I decided not to go because the stress levels would have been over the top.”
Even though he decided to stay outside the pension scheme, Hoeppner said it should be an issue for MPs to decide and for their voters to judge.
He said leader Preston Manning “has been getting some bad advice.”
Hoeppner said he will make his decision by early October, after seeing his doctor, talking to his constituency association and meeting at the end of September with national caucus and the national Reform executive council.
His current preference is to resign his seat and leave politics.
“The other options, I guess, are to sit as an independent or just kind of mope along in caucus for three years and get stepped all over,” he said. “I’m not that kind of person. Whether I go back depends on whether they’re going to shape up or I’ll ship out … one of those two things.”
