Gerry Ritz provided his assessment of the New Democratic Party as the new official opposition shortly after he was re-appointed federal agriculture minister last month.
“They are anti-trade and oppose any changes to the Canadian Wheat Board,” he said. “I don’t think anything will change.”
Robert Chisholm, the new NDP trade critic, begs to differ, at least on the trade front.
“The categorization of the NDP as anti-trade is nonsense,” he said. “My approach very much is going to be that if you are going to enter into negotiations on any kind of deal, you want to make sure you are representing your side and to make sure that when you come out the other side, you are in a better position than when you went in. At the very least, it has to be a balanced agreement.”
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The NDP has opposed legislation in recent Parliaments to implement trade deals with Colombia and Panama, citing concerns about human rights and worker abuse in those countries.
Led by former trade critic Peter Julian, the party also opposed Canada’s free trade negotiation with the European Union because of what it saw as a threat to local government jobs and Canadian company contracts to supply local governments.
The party has also been skeptical about Canada’s participation in World Trade Organization talks.
“Our party’s concern in the past is that we have put the rights of Canadian companies and workers for local governments in jeopardy because of some of the deals we have struck,” said Chisholm.
“That does not make us anti-trade but rather for trade deals that work for Canada.”
The newly elected Chisholm said he needed more time to be briefed on the implications of Canada-EU and WTO negotiations and their potential impact on agriculture.
“What we have to be concerned about is the ability of producers in our country to stay in business …,” said the Halifax area MP.
Chisholm may be new to Parliament, but he is a political veteran.
He was a Canadian Union of Public Employees activist who became a Nova Scotia NDP MLA and then party leader in the 1990s.
