WATERLOO, Ont. – City voters often see the Conservative government as an unquestioning supporter of rural Canada and that may be hurting rural voters, said Ontario-based political analysts.
The perceived rural tilt of the government helps deepen the divide between urban and rural Canadians, said John English, executive director of the Centre for International Governance Challenges in Waterloo, a former MP and prime ministerial biographer.
Urban voters may see rural support coming at the expense of their interests. Because of demographics, any majority government would have to play to urban issues.
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“I think the cities’ agenda is becoming increasingly difficult for rural Canada and if the cities are seen as Liberal, the rural reacts by going the opposite way,” he said. “But that really does deepen the divide.”
At the University of Toronto, rural issues analyst and author Grace Skogstad said urban voters sometimes see the Conservatives as too close to the rural economy on issues such as promoting the use of crops to produce ethanol and insisting the food system is safe even as more of the inspection responsibility is being transferred to industry.
“By defending ethanol and deregulation in the food inspection system, the government is seen as being very close to farmers,” she said. “But if the government is seen as too close to farmers, that may not be in the long-term best interests of farmers because it may lead to urban distrust of the rural agenda.
“It really bothers me because my sympathies are always with the farmers and I don’t like to see the cities, where increasingly power lies, to be hostile to rural interests.”
Skogstad said the Conservative government would be doing farmers and rural residents more of a favour if it worked harder to bring their interests together.
“A good government is one that tries to heal the cleavages between rural and urban. But instead, the perception that the government supports policies that turn food into fuel despite world hunger and that cut corners on food safety really make urban voters suspicious of rural interests,” she said. “I think that is a shame.”
The Conservative government and the Liberal one before it were widely criticized by urban economists for threatening to oppose a world trade deal if supply management protections were undermined.
Some urban commentators complain about the billions of taxpayer dollars transferred to farmers over the years.
“I think the cleavage is growing deeper and it really bothers me,” said Skogstad.
