What’s a left-winger to do to make inroads with farm voters on the Prairies?
Farm votes are up for grabs every election in Ontario and Quebec, but out west, most rural folk vote Conservative, Saskatchewan Party or Wild-rose, and it has become a habit.
What would it take for the NDP to stage a rural breakthrough? Federally, they’re the official opposition without a single MP in the party’s birth province of Saskatchewan. The socialist movement spawned largely by farmers is out of touch once you move beyond city limits.
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If you were a strategist for the left, what farm policies would you recommend?
Don’t expect them to resurrect the CWB monopoly issue. That ship has sailed. There’s little appetite for re-opening debate and even less appetite for turning back the clock.
Some Conservative government actions have been a minor rallying point for the left.
The federal withdrawal from community pastures and the refusal of the Saskatchewan Party government to assume that role has concerned some cattle producers and environmental groups, but the organizations that represent the cattle industry have exhibited little vitriol.
Why can’t producers who use a community pasture organize to run it themselves? Why shouldn’t the lease rates in community pastures be more closely aligned to what the private market is paying? Will wildlife really be endangered just because the government isn’t running the show?
The feds have handled the file clumsily and many pasture patrons are upset, but the provincial governments seem to be doing their best to make the transition workable.
Clumsy is also a good description for how the feds have handled the shelterbelt centre in Indian Head, Sask. Hopefully, a private or co-operative entity will take over operations. Hopefully, good research work will continue.
Free trees was an inspired policy in its time, but times change. Why shouldn’t farmers have to pay for trees just like anyone else?
People who are philosophically on the left side of the political spectrum are more likely to be advocates of the local food movement. They’re more likely to oppose genetically modified crops or at least say that GM food ingredients need to be labelled.
These viewpoints resonate better in the cities than they do in farming country, where GM canola is a major crop and almost everything produced is for the export market.
NDP strategists would no doubt like to tap into the farmland ownership concerns that have arisen in recent years. The prairie provinces all have restrictions on foreigners buying land, but there are consistent rumours of rules being circumvented.
There’s also the related issue of farm size and “corporate” control. While this is a potential topic for the left to exploit, even the most left of the lefties will seldom come out and say there should be limits on farm size.
Federal agriculture Gerry Ritz has garnered accolades for tirelessly promoting agricultural trade and for standing up to the Americans over country-of-origin labelling. Cutting core funding to Agriculture Canada and trimming farm support programs have not taken the political toll that might have been expected.
Of course, elections are about more than policies. The Senate scandal is hurting Conservative credibility, and pundits are watching to see if the nation falls in love with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and whether Thomas Mulcair could make a credible prime minister.
At this point, any swing in rural votes to the NDP or Liberals would not be farm policy driven. They don’t seem to have any policy options that resonate.
