Almost a decade ago, Sept. 30, 1997, a Saskatchewan rookie MP, Reformer Gerry Ritz, rose in the House of Commons to give what in parliamentary terms is called his maiden speech.
If this just-off-the-farm politician was nervous, it wasn’t obvious. He spoke like a political veteran about his riding’s concerns and what he saw as Liberal failures.
“On the Prairies today, grain piles up in elevators, trains sit idle on their sidings and government monopolies continue to tell farmers what to do with the products of their labour,” he said. “Back in Ottawa, the government announces new spending initiatives to satisfy a few narrow interests as it claims a balanced budget will soon arrive and perhaps then it will take a look at letting Canadians keep more of their own money.”
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The theme of the speech was that the private sector is a better economic engine than government and its agencies.
Ten years later, that rookie is the agriculture minister with responsibility for one of those monopolies, the Canadian Wheat Board. He now has more say in whether farmers will get more or less government and whether the railways serve farmers properly.
“Did I expect then I’d be agriculture minister back then?” he says with a laugh when asked about his early parliamentary days. “I didn’t expect to be an MP.”
In the June election, he had defeated an incumbent NDP MP and also future CWB president Ken Ritter, running as a Progressive Conservative.
Since then, Ritz has won re-election handily three times.
He contracted out his Rosetown-area grain and ostrich farming operation in 1997 after his election.
He turned 57, Aug. 19.
Although Ritz operated a general contracting company and co-owned a weekly newspaper before politics, he has worn his farming background on his sleeve as an MP, opposition agriculture critic, chair of the Commons agriculture committee and even during the past seven months when he was a junior minister for small business and tourism.
On his website, the MP explains his non-farm activities with a line he often has used in debate: “He owned and operated a general contracting business during those years to help pay for his farming habit.”
He said he became active in politics only in 1989 at age 39 when he began to work in the Kindersley-Lloydminster riding association, managed the successful 1993 election campaign for Elwin Hermanson and served as his riding co-ordinator.
Despite his strong position on controversial issues like the CWB monopoly, Ritz has a Parliament Hill reputation for getting along with his opponents, often using humour to defuse tense situations.
Reaction from Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter was typical.
“I like Gerry and have been able to work with him,” said the Liberal MP. “The question is whether (prime minister Stephen) Harper will let him run the department the way he wants, perhaps show a little more flexibility.”
