IT WAS probably Lyle Vanclief’s swan song on Parliament Hill.
“Thanks for the memories,” the former agriculture minister said Feb. 26 as he spoke to a large Parliament Hill gathering that honoured him. “Some days were a heck of a lot more fun than others, but I wouldn’t trade in one of them.”
The evening reception and tribute were sponsored by Farm Credit Canada and hosted by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Vanclief, dropped as agriculture minister and set to retire when an election is called, was a special guest.
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A T-shirt was given in his honour. Kind words were said.
“I really do believe we owe him gratitude for what he has done for us through six and a half years,” said CFA president Bob Friesen. “Thank you Mr. Vanclief for all the hard work you did.”
Funny how obituaries, political or temporal, end up making the recently deceased sound more beloved than he was in life.
Retiring political leaders feted in the House of Commons often make the joke that, upon hearing how good they were from the tributes, they might reconsider retirement.
So it was with Vanclief. He was praised for all his good works on behalf of farmers.
Let it be said quickly that despite the praise, Vanclief has no plans to unretire. He seems perfectly content with the prospect of life after politics. It probably also is true that he didn’t really believe the kind words, or at least didn’t really believe that the CFA members meant them. Receiving their thanks is one thing. Generating nostalgia is quite another.
When he held the position as minister, relations with the country’s largest farm lobby were often tense, even as he hauled out programs and record amounts of program funding. They felt he was too inflexible, too controlled by unsympathetic bureaucrats, too unwilling to heed the advice of farmers about how to make the programs he was hauling out work better.
In fact, had Vanclief wandered over the next morning to the second day of the CFA annual meeting, he would have heard a different message about his legacy.
The CFA, like most farm groups, has embraced new agriculture minister Bob Speller as a minister who wants to help them, who respects them and their advice, who isn’t Lyle Vanclief.
They’re never quite as blunt as that but the implication is clear.
There was Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett at the microphone the next morning, worrying that if delegates passed resolutions too critical of the way the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program is designed, it might be seen as criticism of Speller, who is pushing the program and promising changes if they are needed.
“We now have a minister that is willing to work with us,” said Bonnett, clearly contrasting Speller with a certain former minister.
“This minister appears to want to work with us…. He gave us an olive branch. We should give him one back.”
Had he been sitting in the room, Vanclief might have let his mind wander back to the early days of his ministry in 1997 when he was welcomed by farmers as one of them. That changed over the years as the going got tough.
Thanks for the memories indeed.
