IN THE history of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance, there has been no closer farm sector ally than the cattle industry.
They both shy away from any solution that involves government regulation, spending or control. Both are amenable to American ideas and outlooks and think there should be no border. Both think many Canadian ideas or institutions are outdated, with their roots in the bad old days of state control. And nothing the federal Liberals dream up – the National Energy Program, anti-American slurs and the Canadian Wheat Board – could be defensible.
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So it was jarring recently to hear Alliance MP and Manitoba cattle producer Howard Hilstrom taking his fellow producers and ideological fellow travellers to task for not being more critical of the federal mad cow compensation package.
He told producer and feedlot representatives at Parliament Hill hearings that they are making it sound as if the compensation program is working. Hilstrom came close to accusing them of being too cozy with the Liberals.
“It was May 20 when this thing crashed…. It’s June 30 today and we don’t have a working, functioning program to take care of the cattle,” he told Canadian Cattlemen’s Association vice-president Stan Eby.
“This government is not treating this as a crisis and the Canadian cattlemen have been going along with it up to this point.”
Later, he went after Alberta feedlot owner Cor Van Raay.
“You guys are giving the impression right now that in fact this government program is going to work out, standing behind the government people who say this money is going to get the market functioning again and in fact everything is going to be great,” said Hilstrom, a cow-calf producer. “Do you really want us to believe that things are going to be great if?”
Van Raay did not back down: “That’s what I want you to believe, yes,” he said. “Guess what options I have.”
The exchange illustrated an interesting trend in industry-government relations on the bovine spongiform encephalopathy file. The cattle industry has been largely complimentary, even though privately many of its members considered the program flawed and inadequate.
On June 18, for example, the CCA quickly expressed what looked like praise when the program was announced.
“While there are still a number of details to be worked out, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association today described the announcement of a federal-provincial assistance plan for the cattle industry as welcome news,” said a CCA statement.
Just days before, the association had privately warned the federal minister his proposed plan would not work.
Hilstrom thinks the cattle lobby did a disservice to its members by leaving the impression the program is working.
The industry obviously figures it is more productive to keep criticisms private, hoping to win changes.
So far, the CCA’s “be nice” approach has produced little, but an announcement of changes within the next week or two could vindicate the approach.
Otherwise, it might be time for the cattle industry to find its rhetorical voice, the one that once was so critical of federal Liberal governments.
