PERTH, Ont. – Conservative MPs used the dying days of Parliament to give rural Ontario Liberals a golden issue to take to voters.
When the Conservatives decided May 13 to block a recommendation that hefty fines be levied against American-owned packers that had defied a parliamentary order to produce their financial books, it fed into a stereotype the Liberals like to promote – that the new Conservative party really is the old Alliance party with connections to big business.
“I certainly will be raising this,” said eastern Ontario Liberal MP Larry McCormick, who is locked in a tough battle against Conservative MP Scott Reid.
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“Mr. Reid’s party stopped us from getting to the truth about how much money the packers got from these programs compared to farmers,” McCormick said.
“I think the farmers in this riding will be interested to know that.”
In fact, sometime during the first two weeks of the election campaign, rural Ontario Liberal candidates will take part in a telephone conference call to talk about common themes.
“I expect this is something we will be able to raise across the province,” McCormick said.
On May 13, House of Commons agriculture committee chair and rural Ontario Liberal Paul Steckle had asked for unanimous Commons consent to adopt a committee report that wanted defiant packers Cargill and Tyson Foods-owned Lakeside Packers to be fined $250,000 for each day after May 20 that they did not provide financial proof of how their bottom line fared during the past year of BSE.
A number of Conservative MPs denied consent.
As the political system careened toward an election last week, MPs offered a glimpse of how the issue may play out.
Saskatchewan New Democrat Dick Proctor said NDP candidates would try to make it an election issue.
“The Conservative party clearly prefers big business to farmers, ranchers and consumers,” he said.
Edmonton Liberal David Kilgour said the Conservatives would have to answer for their decision to obstruct.
“I have been having calls from farmers from Peace River to Lloydminster and they know they were not well served by the Conservative action.”
Conservative agriculture critic and Saskatchewan MP Gerry Ritz said farmers will understand.
“We’re on producers’ side. We’re a farmgate party,” he said.
“We want to get to the bottom of this too but it is crass politics the way the Liberals tried to slam it through at the end. A lot of farmers realize the real problem was the program itself.”
