IF NOTHING else, it should be great political theatre.
Gerry Ritz versus Wayne Easter will be a recurring parliamentary sideshow as the quick-witted, sharp-tongued and partisan new agriculture minister locks horns with the bombastic, fast-talking and partisan Liberal agriculture critic over whose mother wears bigger army boots, agriculturally speaking.
Almost as entertaining will be the Ritz – Ralph Goodale show, since as political minister for Saskatchewan, Ritz has the job of trying to save as many of the 12 Saskatchewan Conservative seats as possible in the next election. Goodale’s job will be to paint the Conservatives as anti-Saskatchewan zealots.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
With Ritz replacing the more muted Carol Skelton as provincial political minister, the fight just got a little more even.
From an entertainment point of view, it is too bad there isn’t at least one Saskatchewan New Democrat in Parliament to torment him because, a bit like Goodale, Ritz’s partisan adrenalin seems to soar when the issue is the NDP record in Saskatchewan.
He will have to make do by taking shots at the provincial NDP government.
Ritz got off to a roaring start this week by suggesting that Saskatchewan’s perennial complaints about the unfairness of the 60-40 federal-provincial farm program cost-sharing really is a matter of political priorities.
“Complaints started when they were running a deficit but now they are looking at a surplus of more than $1 billion so really, it is a matter of the priority the provincial NDP government gives agriculture,” he said in an interview.
Then he moved on to a critique of other provinces that are pushing back in federal-provincial negotiations over new long-term farm policy.
Saskatchewan, Ontario and Newfoundland all are facing or may be facing autumn elections and that makes the current climate difficult for negotiation, said Ritz.
“We (the federal government) don’t want to become the stage for provincial electioneering,” he said. “That’s my naiveté speaking.”
It seems like a sure bet that the Gerry Ritz era as agriculture minister will at least be characterized by straight talk, at least until the prime minister’s office finds a muzzle that fits.
Of course, appointment of a new federal agriculture minister is a far more serious matter than political theatre.
The department has become something of a revolving door. Five of the country’s 32 agriculture ministers since Confederation – almost 16 percent – have shuffled into the office in less than four years.
And with a significant changing of the guard within the Agriculture Canada bureaucracy as well, it is a time of considerable flux and uncertainty.
Ritz comes with credentials as a former Saskatchewan farmer, a tendency to insist that policy announcements be judged according to how they affect farmers and experience as a popular chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee.
As a rookie minister, the prime minister also has given him a perch on some key cabinet committees – economic growth and long-term prosperity and environment and energy security.
Ritz is energetic, connected and engaged. He will quickly begin to fill in the blanks left by Chuck Strahl.
The question that industry and the bureaucrats must be uneasy about is: how long will he be there?
With an election expected as early as spring 2008 and a cabinet shuffle no matter which party wins, will he be around to finish what he starts?
