minister Andy Mitchell chose as the site of his first sit-down interview after his appointment a small departmental boardroom that had been used sometime earlier for a language training class.
On the flip chart in the room were two sentences: “Bob didn’t agree to help me. Bob agreed not to help me.”
Mitchell spotted the chart and quickly asserted that it was in no way connected to his predecessor minister Bob Speller, defeated in the June 28 election.
In truth, there is little Bob could do to help. In fact, in some ways the farm lobby memory of his brief term may be a hindrance to the new minister.
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Speller couldn’t help because Mitchell already is swimming in the deep end of the pool and has to stay afloat under his own power.
He inherited a farm sector in crisis over income, tense about World Trade Organization talks and estranged from Ottawa’s agricultural bureaucracy that is supposed to help – a legacy of bad industry-government relations during the years of Lyle Vanclief and his deputy minister Samy Watson.
So far, Mitchell seems off to a good start. He has connected to farm groups in the West, promised close collaboration with farmers on program design and review and gone to Geneva to try to defend farm interests in WTO negotiations.
Mitchell’s assertion that “all wisdom does not reside on the ninth floor of the Sir John Carling building” where Agriculture Canada executives work was exactly the right way to woo farmers tired of policy directives from that elevation.
He is, though, burdened with the farm community view that Speller, during his seven months, was a great minister.
“I don’t think we can thank him enough for what he did for the industry,” British Columbia egg producer Harold Froese said last week, referring to Speller’s decision to order the destruction of millions of chickens during the avian flu crisis, with farmer compensation.
During his short tenure, Speller promised much, never said no, was decisive on a couple of files and was not there long enough to have to start delivering on the many files needing decisions. Farm leaders loved him for it, and for not being Vanclief.
Mitchell, if he under-performs, will have to live in the shadow of what-might-have-been with Speller.
But he seems to be impressing so far, with judgment on actual results pending.
And Mitchell is helped by having Len Edwards as his new deputy minister.
Edwards grew up on a Saskatchewan farm, has had an accomplished career as a diplomat and a trade bureaucrat with agricultural trade and WTO experience, impressed farm leaders by assuring them he considers them partners in designing policy and won kudos by being frank in his assessment of issues.
Not being Samy Watson also is an asset.
When Edwards finished a session with Canadian Federation of Agriculture leaders July 30 in Quebec City, CFA vice-president and Quebec farm leader Laurent Pellerin set a co-operative tone for relations with the minister and his deputy.
“Good luck to the new team,” he said. “We are supporters, here if you want to use us.”
It is an invitation Mitchell and Edwards will ignore at their peril.
