A desire to take a stand for farmers led the Manitoba government to announce a farm aid package before finishing negotiations with the federal government, says premier Gary Filmon.
“It doesn’t work when it’s, ‘after you, Alphonse,’ ” said Filmon. “You can’t keep bouncing the ball back and forth.”
Filmon said his government decided to make its farm aid intentions public last week to put more pressure on the federal government to help.
The move caught Manitoba’s farm lobby group by surprise.
“We thought the provincial government would wait for the federal government to ante up,” said Don Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
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“When the premier told us, as we sat around the table (on the evening of June 28), there was a collective sigh of relief,” said Dewar.
That’s why it’s not surprising that the provincial government made the announcement, said political scientist Paul Thomas.
“Undoubtedly, there is good politics in this for Filmon,” said Thomas, who teaches at the University of Manitoba.
If the federal government is perceived as being distant and unhelpful in flood aid, Filmon’s announcement will play well in hard-hit areas, said Thomas.
The southwest is a provincial Tory stronghold with several powerful cabinet ministers, he noted.
More than half of the party’s 31 seats in the legislature are rural, and it dominates 16 out of 19 rural ridings in the province.
In May, party brass caused an uproar in the flooded region when they revoked the nomination of Gary Nestibo, a popular local farmer planning to run in Arthur-Virden.
Nestibo is alleged to have been part of an election controversy in 1998 in the rural municipality of Winchester.
Thomas said taking a strong stand on flood aid could sooth dissension in the region.
He said Filmon’s announcement could also work as a pressure tactic to speed federal reaction to the crisis.
“It may be that efforts at quiet diplomacy had failed,” Thomas said.
But he speculated the pressure could be directed at the federal finance minister and treasury board rather than at agriculture minister Vanclief.
Thomas, a formal civil servant, said it’s not unheard of for provincial ministers to agree to kick up a fuss to give their federal counterparts a hand in convincing the federal cabinet to open up the coffers.
Manitoba’s opposition agriculture critic said Filmon’s announcement is a good start, but farmers need a strong, long-term safety net to survive.
“The province had to do something because the federal government is not moving,” said Rosann Wowchuk.
Wowchuk said politics played a role in the timing of the announcement, noting an upcoming fall election, the Nestibo controversy, and the big rally held in Melita the night after the announcement.
