After all that has happened, it sounds odd to hear retiring Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow still wax optimistic about his province’s farmers and rural areas.
His last few years in office have featured regular clashes with farmers demanding more aid, demonstrations at the Legislature and trips to Ottawa by Romanow and his ministers to plead for more federal help.
Then, in the 1999 election, rural Saskatchewan and farmers all but abandoned Romanow’s New Democratic Party.
Yet when asked in an interview to analyze the reasons behind the “decline” of rural Saskatchewan during his more than three decades in provincial politics, the premier objected to the term.
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“I would not speak of decline,” he said Oct. 5. “I know there are some tough things happening, some real pressures on our farmers and there will be changes, but I believe our farmers have and will continue to make a significant economic contribution to the province.”
Romanow figures the days of agriculture’s low income trauma will pass and he talks enthusiastically about the potential for diversification.
He even thinks the Canadian Wheat Board will survive, despite the pressure from multinationals, foreign governments with trade challenges and growing farmer disaffection.
“Maybe I’m just a dreamer but I continue to support the wheat board, continue to think it serves farmers well and continue to believe it will survive despite the pressures,” said Romanow.
Part of that is a hunch that the federal Liberal government really has a long-term commitment to the board. Of course, that assumes the Liberals stay in office.
It also assumes farmers will voice their support for the board and Romanow concedes that support has weakened. Part of it is the decline of the farm voice, he said.
When he first entered politics in 1967 and then entered government in 1971, there were a handful of powerful farm voices – Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, National Farmers Union and the Saskatchewan Federation of Agriculture.
Now, when the Romanow government tried to get a committee together to consider ways to revitalize rural Saskat-chewan, several dozen groups claiming to speak for farmers wanted a seat.
“There is no doubt the farm voice has become more diffuse and that is a significant difference,” he said. “I don’t blame farmers for that entirely. It is also true that governments haven’t done a great job of coming up with a vision, but if on the other side of the teeter-totter there are a number of conflicting voices, it isn’t always easy to know what farmers want or what would be good for them.”
As a politician, Romanow has been aware of the shrinking size of the farm lobby and the growing distance between many urban politicians and the source of their food. It makes it more difficult for farmers to sell their case.
“I believe there is still a potential for farm issues to capture the attention of the political agenda, but I do concede it is getting tougher,” he said. “It is a job for all of us, farmers and politicians who understand their importance, to keep making the point that this is an important sector. We in this country are guilty sometimes of taking it for granted.”
