Election campaign bereft of ag policies - The Moral Economy

EXCUSE me, but are there any farmers left in Saskatchewan?

Of course there are, but you wouldn’t know it from the early part of the Saskatchewan election campaign.

I have listened and read. I’ve checked the websites of the New Democratic Party, Saskatchewan Party, Liberals and Progressive Conservatives – the rump of the party once led by the privatizing, neoconservative Grant Devine.

The amounts of information vary and sometimes that information is hard to find.

We have heard about improving roads and waiting times for surgery. We’ve heard about school taxes. Both the Saskatchewan Party and NDP are dancing around the burden that school expenses place on property owners, particularly in rural areas.

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While these things affect rural residents, they are not directly related to agricultural production and marketing.

What are politicians thinking and saying about the future of the troubled livestock sector and value-added production? What are they saying about issues of water management in a time of global warming and the potential for irrigation around the Gardiner Dam, and maybe a reservoir on the North Saskatchewan River?

What are the new ideas for effective, long-term farm income stabilization? What about support for short-line railways?

I’m not sure. Mostly I’m hearing nothing.

The reason we’re not hearing much is the current political “wisdom.”

When you analyze which party represents which constituencies, the Saskatchewan Party is basically the party of the rural and the rich.

The NDP holds most of the seats in major urban centres – Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Regina and Saskatoon – as well as a few rural spots.

The Saskatchewan Party apparently believes it will be able to hang onto its rural ridings easily so it is focusing on the urban areas, particularly Saskatoon, trying to pick up more urban votes.

The NDP seems to have no similar focus for raising its profile in the farming areas. Maybe something will appear as the election moves along.

These developments are not surprising. Saskatchewan, like the rest of the world, is becoming more urbanized. Roughly half of the province’s people are gathered in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw so political parties must focus on urban voters and what those parties think urban voters want.

If party policies can satisfy both urban and non-urban voters at the same time, so much the better.

While the parties must appeal to urban voters, they also have to support the province’s economic bases. One of those is farming.

Since many urban people don’t understand where their bread and butter come from, we need politicians who can tell urban voters, “your urban livelihood depends very much on what happens outside this city.”

To do that, politicians have to be clearly engaged in rural areas as well as urban areas. They need to have good policies that support the work and life of urban and rural people. And they need to be good at interpreting those groups to each other.

Who is up to the task?

Rob Brown is a former agricultural writer and broadcaster now doing studies in ethics. He can be reached at moral.economy@sasktel.net.