Lobb proud of independence

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Published: April 20, 2012

Conservative MP | Non-partisan tradition maintained in Ontario’s key agricultural riding

Ben Lobb had already made a political mark when he handily won the southwestern Ontario agricultural riding of Huron-Bruce from the Liberals in 2008.

The riding, on the edge of Lake Huron northwest of Toronto is home to one of the country’s largest cattle sectors. It was also the last significant agricultural riding held by the Liberals in Ontario.

Lobb, a business consultant and part-time auctioneer, almost won the riding from longtime conservative Liberal MP Paul Steckle in 2006. When Steckle, a former chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee, retired before the 2008 election, Lobb had a relatively easy second-time victory.

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Yet as he sits on the agriculture committee that Steckle once chaired, Lobb sees himself much in the tradition of his predecessor — an independent-minded MP short on partisanship and long on trying to represent his constituents.

“If you go back through the people who have represented my rural riding through to Paul, their primary goal was to serve the people and try to be their voice in Ottawa rather than to be just a government voice,” he said.

Steckle defied his Liberal government on such issues as the long-gun registry and sometimes was disciplined for his defiance.

Lobb doesn’t see his approach as defiance.

“Obviously, I am a Conservative member of Parliament and I’m proud of that, but if there is a problem my constituents have, it’s got to be addressed rather than apologizing or defending the government,” he said.

That independent streak shows on the agriculture committee as he presses federal officials on why their explanations do not coincide with the problems his constituents report.

“It is my job to listen to farmers about what their problems are and what solutions are possible,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s my job at all to defend the department or to tell people who come to me with problems that everything is fine.”

He takes the same approach when questioning government treatment of veterans as a member of the veterans’ affairs committee.

Lobb’s 2008 victory and stronger win in 2011 is part of the general Liberal party decline in rural Canada.

Although long a Conservative bastion, Huron-Bruce was part of the Liberal Ontario near-sweep in 1993 as the Progressive Conservative vote collapsed and the upstart Reform party ate into its support.

Steckle won the riding with 44 percent of the vote as Reform and PC candidates split most of the rest. Lobb’s uncle, Len, was the Reform candidate.

The Liberals maintained almost a sweep of vote-rich Ontario through three elections, but then began to see the strengthened Conservatives winning back traditionally Tory rural seats starting in 2004.

Four years later, Lobb finished the job.

Although never a farmer, he comes from a long line of farmer stock, starting with ancestor George who emigrated from England in 1851 and introduced the first Holstein cattle to Huron County.

Uncle Don Lobb is an award-winning conservation farmer in the area, and the family has a long history in the farm and farm equipment auctioneer business.

The MP said the rural issues that he faces differ from those that faced many of his predecessors. Issues through the 1980s, 1990s and the years following the outbreak of BSE often related to farmer pleas for help.

“I think I face a different job,” he said.

“Commodity prices have improved a lot so it is a different time with a lot more optimism, so farmers are more focused on their operations, trying to enhance what they do and upgrade, innovate and modernize. If you drive through Huron and Bruce counties, you’ll see a very progressive agricultural landscape.”

One of the biggest issues he faces as an MP is really a provincial issue — the proliferation of industrial wind turbines in his riding and the divisions that has caused within rural communities.

Lobb said traditional rural and farm voter demands to their MP have changed.

“Because of the times we’re in, a lot of the farmer focus is not on meeting with politicians but on their farm operations, and I think that is a great thing.”

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