The spin put on last week’s new cabinet unveiling was that western Canada’s influence in the government has increased, despite fewer Liberals elected from the west.
Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien started the spiral of interpretation immediately after the June 11 cabinet swearing-in when he emerged to tell reporters western MPs had done very well.
Western MPs hold the senior posts of foreign affairs, justice, natural resources and fisheries, as well as a handful of junior ministries.
“The west is very well represented,” ChrŽtien said.
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But western farmers will find more to ponder in the make-up of the new cabinet than western representatives.
A number of new ministers have been appointed to portfolios which have an impact on the region and the industry.
Perhaps most important is Toronto MP David Collenette, appointed transport minister and suddenly the man in charge of dealing with prairie grain transportation, the sale of government hopper cars and other transportation issues.
“I would say one of the most important figures in the new cabinet is Collenette,” western Canadian wheat growers association president Larry Maguire said in an interview. “How he views the issues will have a real impact on the bottlenecks we have been experiencing.”
Collenette is a political veteran who served as defence minister in the last government but resigned last year in a scandal involving a letter he sent to a quasi-judicial board dealing with a constituent’s immigration concern.
Other ministers who inherit issues of interest to western agriculture include:
- Veteran Toronto MP Sergio Marchi, who moved from environment in the last government to international trade. He has been an MP since 1984.
- Labor minister Lawrence MacAulay, a Prince Edward Island farmer who must decide if the labor code amendments proposed in the last Parliament will be revived. Among other clauses, the bill would protect west coast grain exports from disruption because of third-party labor disruptions.
It died in the last Parliament when Conservative Senators refused to approve it on the final day the Senate sat before the election.
Last week, he said he had not yet considered the issue.
- Health minister Allan Rock, a Toronto lawyer who was justice minister in the last government and now inherits the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the imminent health department approval of the dairy growth hormone BST.
- Christine Stewart, a nurse who holds the riding bordering on the eastern Ontario riding held by agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief, becomes environment minister with a decision to make about whether to revive endangered species legislation.
