ABRAMS VILLAGE, P.E.I. – Beef producer and provincial farm leader John Colwill is not about to endorse the Conservative record when asked if a federal government with a large rural caucus has been better for farmers.
“I don’t think it matters what party is in power because programs don’t come quickly and this region’s farmers don’t seem to benefit,” said the president of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture during a 4-H dairy show in this seashore village.
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Another producer, Ron Maynard, vice-president of Dairy Farmers of Canada and from nearby Tyne Valley, acknowledges that the Conservative government has been more stalwart in defending supply management than previous governments.
But that does not stop him from questioning whether prime minister Stephen Harper and the Reform core of his Conservative government, a prairie-based group once hostile to supply management as protectionist, really have changed their position.
“I personally don’t think Stephen Harper and his core support have changed their opinions,” Maynard said. But they realize the road to a majority involves convincing rural Ontario and Quebec voters that they embrace supply management.
With a majority, would that position hold?
“For supply management, I think the best scenario is status quo, a minority government facing an opposition that uniformly supports supply management protections.”
Yet farmer opinion, based on random interviews, hardly embraces the Liberals, viewing that the proposed carbon tax is a potential costly disaster for farmers. But the carbon tax opposition doesn’t seem to translate into a strong embrace of the Conservatives.
It is a dilemma for Conservatives campaigning in the only region in Canada where the Liberals still hold the majority of rural seats. P.E.I.’s four seats have been solidly Liberal for 20 years.
“I think we have a great story to tell to farmers about the progress we have made in less than three years that the Liberals didn’t do in 13,” said Malpeque Conservative candidate Mary Crane, who is trying to unseat 15-year veteran Liberal Wayne Easter.
“The carbon tax just illustrates the disconnect between the Liberals and rural Canada. We are the party of rural Canada.”
But there are nuances and historical grievances to factor in.
P.E.I.’s budget is 40 percent funded by transfers from the federal government. The region needs Ottawa.
As president of the conservative National Citizens’ Coalition in the 1990s, Harper once argued Atlantic Canada lacked entrepreneurial spirit and suffered from a culture of defeatism.
“No one likes to be called a loser and that’s precisely what Stephen Harper did,” said University of Prince Edward Island history professor Ed MacDonald. “The party has had to fight back from that.”
Philip Brown agrees.
The former president of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture and now Conservative campaign manager in the Egmont riding on the west of the island said the Liberals have been successful in painting Harper as a scary guy who would cut government spending.
Farm supports largely depend on that 40 percent of the provincial budget that comes from federal transfers.
“Liberals have been good at telling voters that government is good and they are the best at government,” Brown said. “People have a comfort level with that and that’s what we have to overcome. I think we can.”
