POLITICAL credibility is a fragile commodity. It is as much about perception as reality.
For the moment, new federal agriculture minister Bob Speller has it in spades. It quickly will fade as farmers demand that he move beyond promising to listen and begin to act. Once he does, he will start to make enemies.
Specifically, farmers will want him to act as they think he should act. Speller’s explanations that he has to work within government financial and policy constraints but that he is doing the best he can will fall on hostile ears. Too little. Too late. Not farmer friendly. Too top down.
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That, at least, has been the history of farmer lobby relations with agriculture ministers in recent years.
In 1997, Lyle Vanclief started off as a farmer favourite (difficult as that is to remember) with tonnes of perceived credibility, following Ralph Goodale who oversaw dramatic cuts in agriculture spending.
Vanclief promised to do better and he did. Basic safety net spending was restored and then expanded beyond pre-Goodale levels. Funding was locked in for five years. Ad hoc funding during his years exceeded $2 billion.
Yet farmers saw him as unsympathetic and impotent in Ottawa. His credibility crumbled and he left office as one of most reviled agriculture ministers in recent memory, despite a record of extracting more government money for farmers than any government in more than a decade.
Of course the previous farm aid record holder, the last government of Brian Mulroney, was rewarded for its farm largesse by losing every western rural seat in 1993.
As an anti-West, pro-Quebec political party, with some of the strongest western representation in Ottawa in more than two generations, they had no credibility.
This is a round-about way to get to the case of Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen’s bid to become a Liberal candidate in the Brandon-Souris riding in the next federal election.
An assertion by opposition politicians (referred to by a reporter, no names mentioned) that this would diminish Friesen’s credibility as an objective national farm leader drew some strong and negative reaction from some CFA board members.
It was assumed this was an attack on Friesen’s integrity or competence. It wasn’t.
Friesen has been a smart, competent and articulate farm leader, leading the fight for better government farm policies.
And one of the jobs of a farm leader is to pressure opposition as well as government politicians for support. Credibility as an independent farm-based leader is key.
By declaring himself a Liberal while occupying a position that requires him to comment on policies of the new Liberal government or to lobby opposition politicians, Friesen’s credibility was undermined.
His CFA supporters insist he can rise above partisanship to represent farmers. There is nothing on public record to dispute that claim but unless Canada truly is a one-party state in which only Liberal connections matter, credibility with non-Liberal politicians and public is important.
A public declaration of partisanship is fatal to the ability to appear non-partisan.
Partisan politics, like being a farm leader, is a noble calling.
It does, however, affect your relationship with others who do not share your political bias.
