Longtime Quebec farm leader Laurent Pellerin, well known across Western Canada for his strong defence of orderly marketing and the Canadian Wheat Board and his promotion of co-operatives, was defeated last week in his bid for re-election as president of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles.
Dairy farmer Christian Lacasse defeated him by 11 votes during the UPA annual meeting in Quebec City. The vote was 198 to 187, the reverse of the margin by which Pellerin defeated Lacasse when they last clashed in 2005.
Pellerin had been UPA president since 1993 and Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president for most of those years.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
Current and former prairie farm leaders said last week they were shocked by the development.
“I have nothing but respect and appreciation for Laurent Pellerin,” said Agricultural Producers’ Association of Saskatchewan past-president Terry Hildebrandt. “He was one of our mentors when we started out green. He just kept hammering on the need to have one voice, solidarity and especially in Saskatchewan where you’re export oriented.”
Several years ago, Pellerin brought members of Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers to their feet with a fiery speech about farmer solidarity and power.
“I’m certainly shocked,” WRAP president Bill Dobson said when he heard the news. “Laurent has a wealth of knowledge that he adds to every debate.”
According to CFA president Bob Friesen, Pellerin will be able to remain CFA vice-president if he chooses. Former second vice-president Marvin Shauf continued on the CFA board for several years after he was defeated as a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegate.
“Laurent Pellerin has been a very, very strong advocate of farmers for many, many years,” he said.
However, some UPA delegates had a feeling that Pellerin was too conciliatory, said convention delegate and Quebec Farmers’ Association president Gib Drury in a Dec. 10 interview.
“One of the lines pushed by the new president was that Pellerin was not confrontational enough and that he would rather negotiate than call the troops out,” said the president of the QFA that is part of UPA. “He has promised to be tougher in defending the incomes and programs of Quebec farmers.”
Beef farmer Cindy Duncan-McMillan, a former QFA president, said there was a sentiment among some delegates that Pellerin’s interest in national agricultural issues diminished his ability to concentrate on Quebec issues.
“I see a narrow view there that is very unfortunate,” she said.
Drury said the unilingual Lacasse will not be able to give the Quebec farm policy model the same profile in English Canada as did Pellerin.
He credited Lacasse with good pre-convention political organizing.
“Six months ago, he contacted each of the delegates personally to argue that it is time for a change and clearly he convinced 11 more people that it was true and they switched their vote,” Drury said.
In addition to heading the powerful UPA that is recognized by the Quebec government as the only provincial farm voice, the president also is involved in negotiating program design with the provincial government and program delivery through his position as co-chair of the farm program funding corporation La Financiere Agricole.
Lacasse also takes over within weeks of the expected publication in early 2008 of a government report on the future of farming in Quebec. It will be the result of public hearings across the province and could signal whether the Quebec government is considering a change in what has been the most supportive and expensive farm policy in Canada.
