A Liberal party task force report says the party has lost its political connection to agriculture and must change its policies, structures and priorities if it is to reconnect and win seats in a part of the country rich in parliamentary seats but now largely conceded to the Conservatives.
And it says there is a Liberal opportunity because the Conservative government has failed to live up to its promises to farmers.
The task force argued the party has a strong history of agricultural support and Liberal governments sent billions of dollars to the industry after 1993.
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“Unfortunately over the past 13 years, there has also been a growing disconnect between the Liberal party and Canada’s rural and agricultural population,” said the report slated for debate at the party leadership and policy convention in Montreal in late November.
“As part of its renewal process, the Liberal Party of Canada must find ways to reconnect with the Canadian agricultural community. The party must demonstrate it understands the issues facing Canadian farmers, it wants to engage with Canadian farmers and places the highest priority on developing good agriculture policy to ensure long-term profitability and sustainability of the Canadian agriculture industry.”
The report recommended a number of policy directions from implementing the Easter report on farmer empowerment through marketing boards, the Canadian Wheat Board and value-added opportunities to creation of tax breaks for beginning farmers and a national land trust to preserve threatened urban-area land for farm production.
It recommended the Liberal party be prepared to model national policy after provincial policies if they are successful, while ensuring that farmers across Canada have access to the same level of benefits.
It recommended the Liberals look for inspiration outside Canada’s borders at how countries like the United States “strategically invest in agriculture in ways that prime the pump for future growth.” This is a Liberal embrace of a concept and language that have been promoted during the past year by Canada’s largest farm lobby, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
The agricultural task force headed by Newfoundland beef producer Kay Young and including Liberal activists from across the country including MP Wayne Easter, Owen McAuley from Manitoba, Tom Manley from Ontario and Lonny McKague from Saskatchewan is one of more than 30 policy renewal task forces set up by the party after its January electoral defeat.
Although the centerpiece of the Montreal convention will be election of a new Liberal leader, it also is aimed at creating different party strategies.
The task force recommends the party create a national rural committee to develop a dedicated rural focus during elections and gain a commitment from the new leader to move the party away from its increasingly narrow urban base.
If the Liberals concede most of rural Canada to the Conservative party, they give away more than one-third of the seats in the House of Commons.
The task force report says members of the party believe it has not been listening to the rural voice.
“They feel there has been a lack of interest in and understanding of rural and agricultural issues at the top levels of the party,” said the report. “They feel that in recent years, particularly in the two most recent elections, there has been an inadequate effort to communicate the party and its messages to rural Canada.”
The report said the weakness of past Liberal safety net policies has been that “programs have been made by bureaucrats and politicians without heeding the real needs and input of farmers and their representative organizations.”
Easter, former parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister, said in a Sept. 15 interview previous Liberal governments did consult; “in fact, some said there was consultation fatigue.”
But farmers did not think the government was listening.
Easter said the most important Liberal decision will be to insist that the new leader makes rural issues a key part of the continual message.
“The leader has to make it clear rural and agricultural Canada matters to this party.”
