FOR agriculture, as for most issues, a minority government and a muddled House of Commons likely means little will happen on the major issues, at least until some political stability is restored.
If the Liberal-NDP coalition forms, the cities agenda will be more important than the rural agenda.
Mind you, based on the election campaign we’ve just been through, not many major agricultural issues were promised or debated. Farmers probably could not expect much from the new Parliament no matter which party won the vote.
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The Conservative party promised to end the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly but at least for now, that is on hold.
Beyond that, what were the major issues in the agricultural debate? What promises did the parties make that farmers can hold them accountable for in the 38th Parliament, however long it lasts?
Remember the context in Canada last spring as the Liberals and Paul Martin marched toward an election they were sure they could win overwhelmingly, far more convincingly than that minor-leaguer Jean Chrétien ever did.
The farm community was in the grips of one of the worst income crises in Canadian history. The U.S. border was closed to live Canadian cattle and in most sectors, the fallout from historic low 2003 incomes was being felt across the land.
When Martin finally made it official May 23, farm leaders actually saw the election as an opportunity, a happy coincidence of farmer need for attention and politicians’ need for support.
Surely, therefore, the candidates and parties could not avoid talking about the problems and opportunities in agriculture, one of the country’s most important economic sectors.
Thirty-six days of electioneering, two national leaders’ debates, five election platforms, thousands of television and radio hours, millions of newspaper words and the promises for agriculture have been ….. not much.
Three hundred and eight MPs will come to Parliament Hill this summer with few promises to keep.
All have said they support supply management but the threat against it is as much from international trade talks as domestic politics. How they would implement that support in the face of a take-it-or-leave-it international trade deal that undermined supply management is far from clear.
As noted above, there is a clear ideological and policy split over the future of the wheat board but nothing will happen in the near term.
Based on pre-election polls showing farmer hostility toward the Liberals across the country, it is reasonable to assume the often-botched Liberal attempt to revamp farm safety nets was an issue. The closest the parties came to talking about changes was to promise to watch the one-year review of the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization plan.
Party positions on BSE were even worse. There was little or no talk of a plan B if the border stays closed, no new ideas on getting the border open and no concrete plans to help construct a domestic beef packing industry to protect Canada’s cattle industry from its dependence on foreign packers in the event of future BSE-like catastrophes.
It is not for lack of trying by farm groups but for agricultural issues, this election was an opportunity lost.
