As the federal government gropes for a “rural strategy” that campaigning rural Liberals can point to, it appears to be unfocused, unsure of itself.
Perhaps it is because the government has not set out a clear goal yet of what it believes a viable rural Canada would look like, what services it would need.
It is difficult to devise a strategy if you don’t know where you want to go.
So far, the government and agriculture minister Ralph Goodale have contented themselves with proclaiming their commitment to a “viable” rural Canada.
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They have swamped rural Canadians with layers and layers of consultation, speeches filled with colorless buzzwords and images of government-as-business.
They have produced reports, promised $60 million a year for “adaptation”, offered farmers a chance to get involved in deciding how the money should be spent and pleaded with rural Canadians to bring their ideas forward.
Still, Liberal MP Lyle Vanclief, chair of the Commons agriculture committee, asks a good question.
“Everybody talks about the renewal of rural Canada but what does that mean?” Vanclief asked last week as he talked about inviting witnesses before the committee this spring to offer suggestions.
“It is easy for us to say what we don’t want to happen but what do we want? Money isn’t the answer. There is none. I have no answers. I want to hear ideas.”
Goodale’s pronouncements on the topic sound less like a vision than a series of local projects – diversification here, road upgrading there.
Detailing the “rural vision”, it seems, must wait until someone tells him what it is.
It didn’t always seem that way.
In opposition, of course, the Liberals knew exactly what rural Canada needed. Mainly, it was fewer Tories and more government support for the down-trodden. Then, just weeks ago, it looked like the Liberals in government finally had devised a plan.
The occasion, on Feb. 27, was the opening of the new session of Parliament with an outline of government plans for the last two years of the term.
“The government is committed to the economic renewal of rural Canada,” said the Speech from the Throne. “The government will address the problems facing rural Canadians in a way that is tailored to their needs.” But how? Details, details.
The agriculture minister has set up a “process” to figure it out.
He has had cross-country “round table” consultations and plans a national conference in Winnipeg in June.
Meanwhile, of course, the Liberals have continued to remove dollars, services and the government presence from rural areas, insisting that the future for rural Canadians is to be market competitive.
Wait, maybe that is it, the unannounced Liberal “rural vision.”
The details? Well, get the internet into rural areas, encourage foreign investment, give business more power, organize more foreign trade trips, get more power to the provinces, cut the federal department down to size and convince people that government is largely irrelevant to them.
Now there is a 1990s vision of political leadership you can put in the bank.
