In some farm lobby circles, the appointment of Peace River, B.C., MP Jay Hill as the new Reform party agriculture spokesman was taken as a good sign.
Hill is seen as a moderate, not an ideological hardliner.
“That’s the way I see it and I think that is good,” said Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson. “I think it is useful to have someone who can see the middle ground, where most of the solutions lie.”
Hill’s performance as the main agriculture spokesman for the Official Opposition remains to be seen, of course.
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He certainly has signalled that he will be a tough critic of government on issues such as the Canadian Wheat Board and safety nets.
Yet Hill also has pledged to try to understand the broad range of issues in Canadian agriculture and the viewpoints of various farm organizations.
And as a veteran of the B.C. Grain Producers’ Association and the B.C. Federation of Agriculture, Hill says he appreciates the role farm groups play in the process.
His appointment may be a signal from Reform leader Preston Manning that he wants policy appealing to a broad national audience.
Manning certainly had choices as he considered who to appoint agriculture spokesman. A prominent contender for the role was Vegreville MP Leon Benoit, one of Reform’s first agriculture spokesmen. He was re-elected June 2 and, in fact, was named one of three deputy agriculture spokesmen.
Based on his performance during the last Parliament, Benoit would have brought a more belligerent, no-compromise style to the job of main critic.
Benoit’s part in the political campaign against the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly is a case study of the politics of certainty.
While Hill says he supports Reform policy favoring a voluntary board, he also acknowledges that a majority of farmers in his own riding supported the board monopoly when polled.
Benoit has shown no such recognition that there are two sides to the issue.
When Alberta’s farmer plebiscite went against the CWB monopoly, Benoit saw it as the end of the debate. He brushed off as irrelevant the arguments that it was not Alberta’s issue to decide and that the results were suspect. Alberta farmers have decided, he said. Ottawa has an obligation to open the border for them.
He also brought to Ottawa a suspicion that farm groups were merely special interests. During one early Parliament Hill exchange with Wilkinson, Benoit appeared skeptical when the CFA president said he represented several hundred thousand farmers across Canada.
Well, you are not visible in Alberta, said the perplexed MP. We certainly are, replied Wilkinson, citing Wild Rose Agricultural Producers and Alberta Wheat Pool as two CFA members.
Benoit did not seem convinced the CFA mattered, although during the next few years, his appreciation for the farm lobby did appear to increase. Still, Wilkinson is seeing Hill’s appointment as a sign that Reform will at least be willing to listen to voices from the “middle ground.”
