Late in the Ottawa night, when Liberal government operatives sit around and ponder might-have-beens, they must occasionally curse Ralph Goodale for not getting Canadian Wheat Board reform legislation through the last Parliament when he had a chance.
He dithered and delayed before getting the bill into the House of Commons, then watched it die for lack of time before the election was called.
In hindsight, given the results of the June 2 election, the last Parliament was the time to do it. With 27 western MPs, the Liberals enjoyed more prairie representation in their caucus than they had in a generation.
Read Also
Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
In this Parliament, almost half that western representation has evaporated and with it has gone some of the sheen of legitimacy for Liberal wheat board plans.
The Reform Party won most rural prairie seats in the June election, with the NDP capturing a few, the Tories one and the Liberals one. Reform and the Tories, representing most rural prairie voters, oppose the bill as flawed and too timid.
The result is bad Liberal optics and in politics, optics are important. When western MPs and witnesses raise concerns about the bill and the defence has to come from eastern Liberals, the optics could hardly be worse.
Whether or not the majority of western farmers agree with the government legislation, the MPs they sent to Ottawa to speak for them overwhelmingly do not.
Last week, as the Commons agriculture committee opened hearings on the Liberal’s CWB reform bill, the government’s political problem was on display.
The bill will be pushed through the House on the strength of votes by Ontario and Quebec MPs, including the Bloc QuŽbecois.
As he sat down at the committee witness table to oppose the bill last week, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Larry Maguire took note of his surroundings.
On the government side of the table sat MPs from Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The committee chair was P.E.I.’s Joe McGuire.
“I’m pleased to see the great interest you have from P.E.I. in my affairs in western Canada,” the Manitoba farmer said.
To make matters worse, the government is intent on getting the legislation through the agriculture committee by mid-November, come opposition or high water.
The result is that there will be few hearings, few witnesses heard, little time for debate and little time for opposition questioning. With a 45-minute slot set aside for presentations, Reform’s three MPs had just eight minutes to ask their questions to Maguire and to make their point, the same as the Liberals and the BQ.
Conservative and NDP critics are given just five minutes each.
Reform scored some points by protesting the lack of time and the fact that the bill is being “rushed” through the process, even though it is highly controversial.
If Goodale had acted more decisively to get the bill through the House last time, when the Liberals had a stronger western caucus, the controversy would now be behind them.
