ALTONA, Man. – For farmers in the southeastern corner of Manitoba, deciding who to vote for could be as hard as deciding what to plant this year.
The Conservative and Liberal candidates are both farmers. They share similar visions for the future of agriculture, and both are prominent rural candidates for their parties.
But the election race in the Emerson riding is a little bit like David taking on Goliath as Liberal hopeful Lorne Hamblin, president of the Manitoba Seed Growers’ Association and Red River Corridor Producers, challenges Conservative incumbent Jack Penner, a founding father of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
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Penner has held the seat since 1988. In the 1990 election, he slew the competition with a margin of close to 2,800 votes. Walking through the Altona Mall, it’s easy to see he has kept close ties with his riding; almost everyone who walks by says hello to him.
Penner served three years in cabinet as the minister of natural resources and rural development. And he said, if asked, he would now take on the challenge of the agriculture portfolio.
Penner said he would make “significant changes” to the department, ensuring it brings producers and the business community together to explore value-added opportunities.
He also said the department needs to work with other provincial agriculture departments to ensure provincial grants don’t create an uneven playing field in the post-Crow subsidy era.
“That will take some tremendous leadership over the next while and I’d like to be involved in it.”
Penner said his experience as founder and president of KAP led him to provincial politics so he could try to get the government to listen more closely to farm organizations.
“I think I’ve been able to, from the inside, encourage government departments and civil servants to have a more open door to interest groups to come before them, and especially for the agricultural community,” Penner said.
Seven years later, Hamblin has become involved in politics for the same reasons. He said he was always “apolitical,” but wanted to shake things up in the Tory stronghold riding.
Hamblin has sat across the table from Penner and other provincial politicians since 1991 to discuss concerns about Gross Revenue Insurance Plan coverages. He and about 5,000 other farmers in the Red River Corridor group are now taking the government to court for about $12 million in coverage they believe is owed to them.
Hamblin said farmers are frustrated by their lack of access to the government.
“You sit on committees and then you realize that they’re not listening to what you’re saying, you don’t have input,” he said. “When politicians begin to take their constituents for granted, then you see other people stepping forward and wanting to get an active role.”
Hamblin is a high-profile rural candidate for the Liberals. In fact, the party sent him to debate veteran agriculture minister Harry Enns and NDP critic Rosann Wowchuk at a Manitoba Pool meeting last week.
He said he believes he has a chance at the polls on April 25.
He said he knows most of the farmers in the riding, has been campaigning from Winkler to the Ontario border since June and has never had a door slammed in his face.
Hamblin said he thinks people are willing to give up tradition for a change.
Henry Marion is taking the plunge and voting for Hamblin. With his wife Lorette, he runs a grain farm and a thriving hand-crafted sign business near St.-Jean-Baptiste.
Marion said he wants less bureaucracy and more creativity in government policies. “It feels like we’ve been living in the doldrums for how many years now?” he said.
But for others, changing parties is a challenge.
Taking a break from hauling grain, Harold Janzen talks to Hamblin about his seeding plan and education issues. Janzen said he’s undecided but likes Hamblin.
“He’s done a lot for agriculture here,” Janzen said.
