FEDERAL election results indicate Canada’s farmers and ranchers are counting on the new Conservative minority government to help them return to profitability. Improving agricultural policy will be no small task, because expectations are high.
But now that Liberal red has been replaced by Conservative blue, the new government must remember this: the colour doesn’t alter the need for policy input from the grassroots.
This government appears well placed to hear that input. Rural ridings on the Prairies again showed their Conservative preference at the ballot box. That means Western Canadian farmers in particular will expect their concerns and proposed solutions to get a thorough airing.
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Tempting though it will be for the Tory broom to sweep clean, powers at the helm of the agriculture portfolio should nevertheless take some lessons from the Easter report tabled last year.
It was compiled with considerable input from the grassroots and many of its proposed solutions are sound, even if they are not the entire remedy to the ailing agricultural economy.
The Easter report should be viewed as part of the basis for future policy, albeit one in the Conservative mould.
In particular the report’s recommendations regarding controls and reductions in regulatory costs for farmers would fit well with the Conservative tenets.
The Conservatives must proceed with plans to improve the agricultural safety net and make good on their intentions to develop biofuel industries.
On trade issues, the new government should explore avenues for bilateral trade agreements, as the United States is doing, to provide greater opportunities for agricultural commodities and value-added products. Here at home, it should proceed to reduce interprovincial barriers that hinder trade.
There are many reasons Western Canadian farmers have cast their lot with a Conservative government. Not the least of them is the failure of the previous government to adequately address their economic plight through real change to agricultural policy.
With farm income in negative numbers, change is overdue. However, support for a party doesn’t come part and parcel with support for that party’s entire platform. Thus the Conservative contradiction of supporting supply management in dairy and poultry, on one hand, while stating plans to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, must soon face examination.
The new government will do well to realize that its election to power does not necessarily give carte blanche to dismantle the CWB. The future of the grain marketing agency is for farmers – and farmers alone – to decide. Perhaps a minority government will ensure this occurs.
In any case, with a Conservative government now at the helm, farmers will expect to see blue skies ahead.
