Newly minted federal New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton found himself sharing a lot of “common ground” with Ontario National Farmers Union activists last week, says the NFU.
In the midst of a southwestern Ontario federal byelection, Layton showed up on the Mitchell, Ont., farm of NFU vice-president Bruce Hunter for a session on agriculture policy.
“I found him to be a good listener,” the cow-calf and cash crop farmer said in an April 21 interview.
“He doesn’t have all the answers, but he listened for more than an hour and a half and he was interested in our views.”
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Hunter said the NDP leader, a former Toronto city councillor, has a consumer view of the food system.
“I think he showed a sense of consumerism, of food security.”
It led Layton to remind his farm audience that opposing genetically modified wheat is “a top priority for his party.”
He also was sympathetic to complaints that agri-business is taking a greater hold over the industry, including the spread of contracting in the hog industry.
“Obviously, he’s the leader of the NDP, which means he’s supposedly a socialist and so he’d be sympathetic to the view that farmers should control agriculture and not corporations,” Hunter said.
The NFU activist said Layton also expressed frustration with the federal agricultural policy framework, agreeing with farm critics that there is not sufficient detail to make farmers comfortable that it is an adequate replacement for existing farm safety net programs.
Layton noted during the meeting that the federal plan has little provincial agreement or farmer support.
