TORONTO – Ontario agriculture minister Steve Peters brings some unusual credentials to his job as the political overseer of Canada’s largest and most diverse agricultural economy.
When queried about his experience in the multibillion dollar Ontario food sector, the 40-year-old rookie minister referred to his 17 years as a shelf stocker in a grocery supermarket in his home town of St. Thomas, Ont.
“I’ve had an opportunity to see the industry from that end,” said the university history graduate who paid his bills working as a stock clerk so he could indulge his passion for history by working in local archives and his passion for politics by being elected alderman in St. Thomas and then mayor in three consecutive elections.
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He said he has no direct farming experience. However, farming is imbedded in his family’s history.
Peters brings prairie farm roots to his job, although they are several generations removed.
Two Ukrainian grandfathers were part of the wave of European settlers attracted to the Prairies a century ago by the land settlement programs of the government of Wilfred Laurier, who was prime minister from 1896-1911. One settled in the Richard area of Saskatchewan around 1910 and the other already had settled southwest of Hafford, Sask.
The depression sent their sons and daughters east to Ontario where a name change from Pidwerbeski to Peters was considered a good job-hunting move.
Still, he has visited the area of his ancestry and seen first-hand the prairie farming industry.
In his ministerial office, Peters has a painting of the old family homestead in Saskatchewan, now demolished.
The new minister hopes to forge close ties with agriculture ministers from other provinces and expects that his family’s prairie background will give him a bit of insight into the vulnerability of the industry in that region.
Despite that, the new minister is adopting a traditional stance of Ontario ministers – when federal farm support dollars are being dispersed, Ontario should not be short-changed by having a disproportionate amount of the dollars going to areas that are more disaster prone.
