Multiple federal election campaign tours stopped off in Saskatchewan Aug. 13, with both prime minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau bringing their campaign to the prairie province.
Harper visited a 20,000-acre family farm near Regina for a re-announcement of the Conservative plan to increase contribution limits to the federal Tax Free Savings Account to $10,000 annually.
In Saskatoon, Trudeau unveiled a major platform plank on First Nations education. The Liberal leader committed to invest $2.6 billion for First Nations education and $500 million in infrastructure funds for indigenous education.
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Back on the farm, Harper once again failed to make agriculture a topic of conversation.
The farm itself was reduced to a political backdrop, despite ongoing concerns among Canadian farmers about drought and the future of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Sources have said a TPP ministerial meeting or chief negotiators meeting in August is unlikely because of scheduling issues. The earliest a meeting could happen, say sources close to the negotiations, is September.
At least the prime minister mentioned the word farmer in his speech. Harper took the opportunity to fire shots at his political opponents, NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Trudeau, over their refusal to support the latest federal budget that saw lifetime capital gains exemption increased for farmers and fishers.
Harper said the change was prompted by concerns raised by farmers about succession planning. The cap was increased to $1 million in April.
Agriculture didn’t figure into media questions either. With the Mike Duffy trial under way in Ottawa and the prime minister’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright on the stand, media questions to Harper focused on the latest revelations around the culture in the prime minister’s office.
Expect more questions about Duffy on the campaign trail as the trial continues.
During his farm visit, Harper also dismissed concerns raised by Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall about the structure of the equalization payment formula, which transfers funds from wealthier provinces to poorer ones.
Wall has expressed frustration about the formula, saying it doesn’t account for slumps in resource prices. Harper shrugged aside those concerns.
“That is not really the central question I think the premier, and frankly for that matter, the people of Saskatchewan, should be concerned about,” he said, insisting resource development should be the priority.
He described the equalization payment formula as “extremely complicated.”
“I may be one of the very few people in the country who understand exactly how the formula works,” Harper said.
Wall has said he will continue to raise the issue throughout the federal campaign, setting the stage for another potential fight between the prime minister and a provincial premier.
Harper has already picked a fight with Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne and newly elected Alberta premier Rachel Notley. He called the recent election of an NDP government in Alberta “a disaster,” a comment Notley has said she “completely rejects.”
“Whether their federal cousins like it or not, the people of Alberta decided they had enough of the Conservative government in this province,” she said during a recent press conference.
Traditionally, federal and provincial political leaders refrain from picking fights during election campaigns. That understanding doesn’t appear to be in place this time around.
As in Saskatchewan, both Ontario and Alberta are viewed as potential battlegrounds in the election campaign thanks to tight races in southern Ontario and the NDP win in Alberta.
The Liberals and the NDP have both said they anticipate political gains in Saskatchewan thanks to the new seat distributions that have created solely urban ridings there for the first time.
